From: Debbie Reese <debreese_at_illinois.edu>
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 05:47:29 -0500

Thanks, Megan, for pointing us to that Q&A page. I'll share it with students today.

An earlier post about popularity of Disney books reminded me of James Crowley's STARFISH. A couple of days ago I uploaded (at my site) an extensive review of James Crowley's STARFISH. It is published by Disney/Hyperion, and his writing makes scenes vivid as can be. Given his background as a film maker, and that the book is by Disney/Hyperion, I wondered if STARFISH is step one for this book. I mean, is this book an idea for a movie?

I am bringing it up in this discussion because I think the Booklist review (the only one I've seen) is positive. And, it is in a Mock Newbery (event? exercise?) on GoodReads. I expect that some people are really going to like it. And, it may end up as a movie, too, so, here's the question. Will you buy it?

This gets back to the question earlier about the librarian's decision to buy or not. Is it censorship? Or is it selection? We can (and do) go round and round with that one. I find quite a lot that is problematic in the book. It isn't quite factual error because the events therein are possible, but not probable. The story is set in Montana, 1915. Two kids, Lionel and Beatrice, age 9 and 12 run away from a mission boarding school. It's winter and they're trying to get to their grandfather. The impetus for their leaving is that Beatrice (she's 12) is in trouble for singing a Blackfeet song in chapel instead of praying. The priest throws her out the door and calls two soldiers over to cut her hair. By then, the two kids have already been at the school for about six years. The soldiers don't like her because she's always been defiant. They think they need to clean her up before cutting her hair (with sheep shears) and they plan to clean her up in the water trough. Since its winter, the water is frozen over. They use her head to break the ice. Her brother rescues her and they flee.

Before that (in a prologue) there's an old Indian man who, as he walks along one of the buildings the night before the incident above takes place, thinks that he was once "a great warrior" but now he's "a drunk." He dies, an improbable but possible death. Thing is, he's drunk. Later in the book, the two kids find other runaway kids, and they all do a sweat and a dance---or some

semblance of each. As they dance, they drink! They get drunk as they dance around the fire. Lionel and Beatrice don't drink with them.

That's some of what I wrote about. There's more. Lots of drama, lots of violence, mystical Indian-stuff, one-with-nature-Indians, lots of vivid writing. I'm guessing it might "fill a void" in your collections, though, because of time period (early 1900s), setting (Montana), tribe (Blackfeet), but it affirms stereotypes of tragic, romantic, mystical, and drunken Indians, too. Course, that stuff sells because people WANT it. Patrons in your libraries LIKE that kind of book about Indians, and so, to meet their needs, you order it.

I wonder, though, do you always order a book a patron requests? Do you ever say no? In a given day, how many books do you order because a patron asks for a specific book? If it isn't available from another library, do you buy it? How often?

Debbie

Debbie

Visit my Internet resource: American Indians in Children's Literature

Debbie A. Reese (Nambй O'-ween-ge') Assistant Professor, American Indian Studies University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Native American House, Room 2005 1204 West Nevada Street, MC-138 Urbana, Illinois 61801

Email: debreese_at_illinois.edu TEL 217-265-9885 FAX 217-265-9880
Received on Wed 29 Sep 2010 05:47:29 AM CDT