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LIGHT OF THE FEATHER

Name: LIGHT OF THE FEATHER
Author: Mick Fedullo
ISBN: 0-688-11559-4

PATHWAYS THROUGH CONTEMPORARY INDIAN AMERICA

by Mick Fedullo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 16, 1992

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Enthusiastic and charmingly frank, Fedullo details his memorable experiences in a decade of teaching creative writing to Native American schoolchildren on reservations throughout the West. Starting in 1979 with a five-year stint in the Arizona desert, as a writer-in-residence among the Pima on the Gila River Reservation, Fedullo quickly realized that he had as much to learn as to teach. Gaining the trust and acceptance of his students in class proved easier than being welcome in their homes, but his eagerness to help them bridge the gap between their culture and white society, so that they could function well away from home without having to sacrifice their sense of identity, proved to be the key that opened doors time and time again. Aware that his method of encouraging students to read their poetry to audiences off the reservation, and of equipping them with ``survival skills''—including tips on projecting one's voice as well as on riding an escalator—could be widely applicable, Fedullo became an educational consultant, traveling on an ever-expanding circuit to schools on various reservations. Contact with Hualapai, Crow, Cree, Apache, Navajo, and other tribal groups found many children responsive to his message and his infectious spirit, but it also brought a sharing in the lives of families in each community, whether through taking part in feasts and dances or through joining in a ritual sweat bath in a traditional lodge. In contrast to teachers in Indian boarding schools who still practice the assimilationist creed that native customs must be eradicated, Fedullo offers the testimonial of a caring educator who found a means of enhancing cross-cultural communication without denying tradition. An insightful, colorful account of real achievement in Indian education today—and solid evidence of the benefits of multiculturalism at its best.

Pub Date: Sept. 16, 1992

ISBN: 0-688-11559-4

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1992

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.