CCBC-Net Archives
The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Beth Martin <bmartin>
Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 10:04:26 -0500
At my school in central Wisconsin all fourth grade students read The Birchbark House. We love it!
Thanks, Carolyn Lehman, for reminding us of "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich (Hyperion, 1999).
In 2000 "The Birchbark House" was named an Honor Book in the Jane Addams Children's Book Award Committee, and among other commendations it was a "CCBC Choice" that year, too. Karen Snelson reviewed "The Birchbark House," for Amazon.com Here - in part - is what she wrote: "Nineteenth?ntury American pioneer life was introduced to thousands of young readers by Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved Little House books. With The Birchbark House, award-winning author Louise Erdrich's first novel for young readers, this same slice of history is seen through the eyes of the spirited, 7-year-old Ojibwa girl Omakayas, or Little Frog, so named because her first step was a hop. The sole survivor of a smallpox epidemic on Spirit Island, Omakayas, then only a baby girl, was rescued by a fearless woman named Tallow and welcomed into an Ojibwa family on Lake Superior's Madeline Island, the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker. We follow Omakayas and her adopted family through a cycle of four seasons in 1847, including the winter, when a historically documented outbreak of smallpox overtook the island...(Ages 9 and older)"
I continue to wonder why this absolutely remarkable story seems to be flying under the radar of otherwise savvy children's book people. Is it because the protagonist is younger than the young readers who must be able to handle a somewhat lengthy text with a complex, partially tragic narrative? This book probably gained immediate critical attention because Louise Erdrich is such a prominent and accomplished author of novels and poetry published for adults. Erdrich's works for young readers rightly compete with the fine writers already mentioned during this month's discussion.
Perhaps "The Birchbark House" will become an American classic if it receives the visibility it deserves within the children's book community. Have the children in your life or work read it? Is "The Birchbark House" a genuine classic within historical fiction written for young readers?
Cordially, Ginny
Ginny Moore Kruse gmkruse at education.wisc.edu
Received on Fri 21 May 2004 10:04:26 AM CDT
Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 10:04:26 -0500
At my school in central Wisconsin all fourth grade students read The Birchbark House. We love it!
Thanks, Carolyn Lehman, for reminding us of "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich (Hyperion, 1999).
In 2000 "The Birchbark House" was named an Honor Book in the Jane Addams Children's Book Award Committee, and among other commendations it was a "CCBC Choice" that year, too. Karen Snelson reviewed "The Birchbark House," for Amazon.com Here - in part - is what she wrote: "Nineteenth?ntury American pioneer life was introduced to thousands of young readers by Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved Little House books. With The Birchbark House, award-winning author Louise Erdrich's first novel for young readers, this same slice of history is seen through the eyes of the spirited, 7-year-old Ojibwa girl Omakayas, or Little Frog, so named because her first step was a hop. The sole survivor of a smallpox epidemic on Spirit Island, Omakayas, then only a baby girl, was rescued by a fearless woman named Tallow and welcomed into an Ojibwa family on Lake Superior's Madeline Island, the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker. We follow Omakayas and her adopted family through a cycle of four seasons in 1847, including the winter, when a historically documented outbreak of smallpox overtook the island...(Ages 9 and older)"
I continue to wonder why this absolutely remarkable story seems to be flying under the radar of otherwise savvy children's book people. Is it because the protagonist is younger than the young readers who must be able to handle a somewhat lengthy text with a complex, partially tragic narrative? This book probably gained immediate critical attention because Louise Erdrich is such a prominent and accomplished author of novels and poetry published for adults. Erdrich's works for young readers rightly compete with the fine writers already mentioned during this month's discussion.
Perhaps "The Birchbark House" will become an American classic if it receives the visibility it deserves within the children's book community. Have the children in your life or work read it? Is "The Birchbark House" a genuine classic within historical fiction written for young readers?
Cordially, Ginny
Ginny Moore Kruse gmkruse at education.wisc.edu
Received on Fri 21 May 2004 10:04:26 AM CDT
