The Birchbark House (THORNDIKE PRESS LARGE PRINT YOUNG ADULT SERIES) - Hardcover

Erdrich, Louise

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 078622178X ISBN 13: 9780786221783

Publisher: Thorndike Pr, 2000

Synopsis

Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe, lives through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on an island in Lake Superior in 1847.

About this title

Review:

Nineteenth-century 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 Okamayas and her adopted family through a cycle of four seasons in 1847, including that winter, when a historically documented outbreak of smallpox overtook the island.

Readers will be riveted by the daily life of this Native American family, in which tanning moose hides, picking berries, and scaring crows from the cornfield are as commonplace as encounters with bear cubs and fireside ghost stories. Erdrich--a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwa--spoke to Ojibwa elders about the spirit and significance of Madeline Island, read letters from travellers, and even spent time with her own children on the island, observing their reactions to woods, stones, crayfish, bear and deer. The author's softly hewn pencil drawings infuse life and authenticity to her poetic, exquisitely wrought narrative. Omakayas is an intense, strong, likeable character to whom young readers will fully relate--from her mixed emotions about her siblings, to her discovery of her unique talents, to her devotion to her pet crow Andeg, to her budding understanding of death, life, and her role in the natural world. We look forward to reading more about this brave, intuitive girl--and wholeheartedly welcome Erdrich's future series to the canon of children's classics. (Age 9 and older) --Karin Snelson

Book Description:

A story with the appeal of Little House on the Prairie ¿ but from a Native American viewpoint

About this edition

• Publisher: Thorndike Pr
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 078622178X
• ISBN 13: 9780786221783
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272