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Birchbark House
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From: Christine Hill <chill>
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 10:24:21 -0500
I view The Birchbark House as sort of an anti-homage to the Little House books. The similarities in conception are readily apparent: episodic plot covering a space of time, rather than resolution of a conflict or problem; careful attention to details of everyday life in a community and family; generous typeface; pencil illustrations, just to name a few. Nor do I object to this type of episodic plot. There are lots of children's books that cover a year in the life or something similar and lots of kids like them. My disappointment was in the bland characters. (I can hear the howls of disagreement, but stick with me.) The pesky little brother; the beautiful, seemingly perfect older sister; the wise, loving mother and grandmother; the gruff, but devoted father. We've seen these characters a million times in children's books. I would like to have seen some spark of eccentricity or individualism in them. The welcome exceptions are Omakayas, who is a strong heroine, and the old woman who put her husband's things outside the door (sorry, I can't remember her name.) How about a whole book on her? That, I would look forward to. Christine M. Hill
Willingboro Public Library One Salem Road Willingboro, NJ 08046 chill at willingboro.org My new book! Robert Ballard: Oceanographer Who Discovered the Titanic, Enslow, 1999
----------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 08:26:14 00 From: Shelby Wolf Subject: Re: Birchbark House -- not a flame!
Dear all,
In response to Tina Hudak's comment on The Birchbark House:
"Mediocre at best" are certainly NOT the terms I would use to describe The Birchbark House.
I thought it was a stunning novel. So soft and subtle in its development, gently pulling the reader into an alternate pace of life through the passing seasons. I loved the wry humor, often typified through the crow Andeg. And Omakayas is, I believe, a beautifully rendered character--perfect in her minor imperfections: her dislike of Pinch, her avoidance of work, her brushes with her sister Angeline. Yet, these small, very human feelings are balanced by a great heart--a heart that connects to family members as well as animals. Think of her devotion to Neewo, her baby brother, and her startling ability to communicate with both Andeg and the bears. Moreover, Omakayas exists because of the caring constellation of her family--a family that the reader comes to know well through both the narrative and the lovely illustrations before the tragedy of disease strikes.
A while ago on the CCBC net, someone wrote that they didn't understand why it took Christopher Paul Curtis so long to get to the point in The Watsons. This person felt he spent far too long with the family in Flint before taking them to Birmingham. The same criticism might be applied to The Birchbark House. Yet, I disagree. In writing a novel of true tragedy, an author must help us to care about the characters before taking us to their pain. The impact of disease on Native peoples can be delivered in shocking
numbers-?cts and figures--but to really FEEL what these numbers mean, I think one has to come to love a family, albeit a fictional one. Because I cared so much for this family, I came to understand much more about the vicious impact of smallpox. The death of Deydey, Angeline's forever-changed visage, Fishtale burying his "thick, splendid hair" with his wife, and for me, most painful, the death of Neewo. Erdrich writes:
"She held him when he died. She held him close. She didn't know exactly when his life went except that Andeg croaked three times, longingly, as though for his playmate. Then, Omakayas knew that something had changed. Her little brother's body no longer warmed her with its heat, they were the same temperature and then he was colder. Still, she did not let him go. Nokomis had to take him from her arms, and when she did Omakayas fell down on the blanket, arms still held in the cradle shape of her brother, and knew nothing all that day" (p. 149).
Erdrich's writing here is miraculous--the croak of the crow, the tell-tale shift in body temperature, the "cradle shape" of Omakaya's arms.
In the class I teach every spring--Processes of Literary Interpretation--I have the teachers/Master's students read 9 tradebooks, and I select the texts with great care. In making my annual decisions, I look particularly for texts where the writing is exquisite, the characters and plot engaging, and the themes significant. The Birchbark House was the first book I KNEW I had to teach this year.
Shelby
Shelby A. Wolf Associate Professor University of Colorado at Boulder School of Education
Received on Thu 13 Jan 2000 09:24:21 AM CST
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 10:24:21 -0500
I view The Birchbark House as sort of an anti-homage to the Little House books. The similarities in conception are readily apparent: episodic plot covering a space of time, rather than resolution of a conflict or problem; careful attention to details of everyday life in a community and family; generous typeface; pencil illustrations, just to name a few. Nor do I object to this type of episodic plot. There are lots of children's books that cover a year in the life or something similar and lots of kids like them. My disappointment was in the bland characters. (I can hear the howls of disagreement, but stick with me.) The pesky little brother; the beautiful, seemingly perfect older sister; the wise, loving mother and grandmother; the gruff, but devoted father. We've seen these characters a million times in children's books. I would like to have seen some spark of eccentricity or individualism in them. The welcome exceptions are Omakayas, who is a strong heroine, and the old woman who put her husband's things outside the door (sorry, I can't remember her name.) How about a whole book on her? That, I would look forward to. Christine M. Hill
Willingboro Public Library One Salem Road Willingboro, NJ 08046 chill at willingboro.org My new book! Robert Ballard: Oceanographer Who Discovered the Titanic, Enslow, 1999
----------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 08:26:14 00 From: Shelby Wolf Subject: Re: Birchbark House -- not a flame!
Dear all,
In response to Tina Hudak's comment on The Birchbark House:
"Mediocre at best" are certainly NOT the terms I would use to describe The Birchbark House.
I thought it was a stunning novel. So soft and subtle in its development, gently pulling the reader into an alternate pace of life through the passing seasons. I loved the wry humor, often typified through the crow Andeg. And Omakayas is, I believe, a beautifully rendered character--perfect in her minor imperfections: her dislike of Pinch, her avoidance of work, her brushes with her sister Angeline. Yet, these small, very human feelings are balanced by a great heart--a heart that connects to family members as well as animals. Think of her devotion to Neewo, her baby brother, and her startling ability to communicate with both Andeg and the bears. Moreover, Omakayas exists because of the caring constellation of her family--a family that the reader comes to know well through both the narrative and the lovely illustrations before the tragedy of disease strikes.
A while ago on the CCBC net, someone wrote that they didn't understand why it took Christopher Paul Curtis so long to get to the point in The Watsons. This person felt he spent far too long with the family in Flint before taking them to Birmingham. The same criticism might be applied to The Birchbark House. Yet, I disagree. In writing a novel of true tragedy, an author must help us to care about the characters before taking us to their pain. The impact of disease on Native peoples can be delivered in shocking
numbers-?cts and figures--but to really FEEL what these numbers mean, I think one has to come to love a family, albeit a fictional one. Because I cared so much for this family, I came to understand much more about the vicious impact of smallpox. The death of Deydey, Angeline's forever-changed visage, Fishtale burying his "thick, splendid hair" with his wife, and for me, most painful, the death of Neewo. Erdrich writes:
"She held him when he died. She held him close. She didn't know exactly when his life went except that Andeg croaked three times, longingly, as though for his playmate. Then, Omakayas knew that something had changed. Her little brother's body no longer warmed her with its heat, they were the same temperature and then he was colder. Still, she did not let him go. Nokomis had to take him from her arms, and when she did Omakayas fell down on the blanket, arms still held in the cradle shape of her brother, and knew nothing all that day" (p. 149).
Erdrich's writing here is miraculous--the croak of the crow, the tell-tale shift in body temperature, the "cradle shape" of Omakaya's arms.
In the class I teach every spring--Processes of Literary Interpretation--I have the teachers/Master's students read 9 tradebooks, and I select the texts with great care. In making my annual decisions, I look particularly for texts where the writing is exquisite, the characters and plot engaging, and the themes significant. The Birchbark House was the first book I KNEW I had to teach this year.
Shelby
Shelby A. Wolf Associate Professor University of Colorado at Boulder School of Education
Received on Thu 13 Jan 2000 09:24:21 AM CST
