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GRANDCHILDREN OF THE LAKOTA

Name: GRANDCHILDREN OF THE LAKOTA
Author: LaVera Rose
ISBN: 1-57505-279-2

by LaVera Rose & photographed by Cheryl Walsh Bellville ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 17, 1998

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This entry in the World’s Children series opens by situating the Lakota within the federacy of the Seven Council Fires that lived in what is now the Dakotas; Rose explains the seven major Lakota subgroups and where they live today. The examination of a Lakota family expands the discussion to include aspects of historical and contemporary life, from religion to schooling, ceremonial herbs, mythology, wild foods, and the sense of place connecting the Lakota to the Badlands and the Black Hills. The post-contact history with the Europeans is handled without a lot of frills: Custer was no friend, treaties were broken time and again, English boarding schools were used to disrupt native cultural continuity, and, until a law enacted 20 years ago, Lakota religious practices were forbidden by the US government. Rose introduces such cultural practices as memorial giveaways, tribal councils and tribal law, sun dances and powwows, making them a living part of a greater tradition. A good selection of full-color photographs accompanies the text, with a wholesome emphasis on the children—“the future of the Lakota Nation, so it is important to treat children with respect and kindness”—that will compel readers through the pages. Rose’s story of the Lakota operates on a number of levels, and in its no-nonsense way is briskly successful. (map) (Picture book/nonfiction. 8-12)

Pub Date: Nov. 17, 1998

ISBN: 1-57505-279-2

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Carolrhoda

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1998

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL SCIENCES

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50 ADVENTURES IN THE 50 STATES

From the The 50 States series

by Kate Siber ; illustrated by Lydia Hill ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 6, 2020

Go adventuring with a better guide.

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Find something to do in every state in the U.S.A.!

This guide highlights a location of interest within each of the states, therefore excluding Washington, D.C., and the territories. Trivia about each location is scattered across crisply rendered landscapes that background each state’s double-page spread while diminutive, diverse characters populate the scenes. Befitting the title, one “adventure” is presented per state, such as shrimping in Louisiana’s bayous, snowshoeing in Connecticut, or celebrating the Fourth of July in Boston. While some are stereotypical gimmes (surfing in California), others have the virtue of novelty, at least for this audience, such as viewing the sandhill crane migration in Nebraska. Within this thematic unity, some details go astray, and readers may find themselves searching in vain for animals mentioned. The trivia is plentiful but may be misleading, vague, or incorrect. Information about the Native American peoples of the area is often included, but its brevity—especially regarding sacred locations—means readers are floundering without sufficient context. The same is true for many of the facts that relate directly to expansion and colonialism, such as the unexplained near extinction of bison. Describing the genealogical oral history of South Carolina’s Gullah community as “spin[ning] tales” is equally brusque and offensive. The book tries to do a lot, but it is more style than substance, which may leave readers bored, confused, slightly annoyed—or all three. (This book was reviewed digitally with 12.2-by-20.2-inch double-page spreads viewed at 80% of actual size.)

Go adventuring with a better guide. (tips on local adventuring, index) (Nonfiction. 8-10)

Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-7112-5445-9

Page Count: 112

Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions

Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL SCIENCES

- BOOK REVIEW
NATIONAL PARKS OF THE U.S.A.
by Kate Siber ; illustrated by Chris Turnham

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THE GREEN MIST

adapted by Marcia Sewall & illustrated by Marcia Sewall ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1999

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A beguiling retelling of a 19th-century Lincolnshire tale that fairly dances with an impatience to be read aloud. Mouth-filling words dot this story, the context making them easily understood while taking away none of their mystery. Bogles and other horrid things live in the cracks and cinders and sleep in the fields in the old times, and at darkling every night folk walk round their houses with lights in their hands to keep the mischancy beings away. In autumn, “they sang hush-a-bye songs in the fields, for the earth was tired” and they fear the winters when the bogles have nothing to do but make mischief. As the year turns, they wake the earth from its sleeping each spring, and welcome the green mist that brings new growth. In one family, a child pines, longing for the green mist to return with the sun. Through the long winter she grows so weak her mother must carry her to the doorsill, so she can crumble the bread and salt onto the earth to hail the spring. The green mist comes, scented with herbs and green as grass, and the child thrives, once again “running about like a sunbeam.” The green, gold, brown, and gray of the watercolors show fields and haycocks, knobby-kneed children and raw-boned elders, a counterpoint to the rich text. (Picture book. 4-9)