TEEN SPIRIT by Francesca Lia Block
I'll start with this: I think Francesca Lia Block likes Indians.I'm just not sure what she knows about us. I kinda think she doesn't know a Native person.By that, I mean one who is on-the-ground...
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How 'bout we all pan NBC's PETER PAN and Warner Bros PAN, too.
Over the weekend, Heather (a reader of AICL) wrote to ask if I'd seen a Salon article about changes made to music and lyrics in the version of Peter Pan that NBC is going to air in December. Though I...
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Debbie Reese (me!) on CUNY's INDEPENDENT SOURCES
Finally had a chance to watch the segment that CUNY's Independent Sources asked me to do with them about children's books and Thanksgiving. My belly is always in knots when I do something like this....
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Roy Boney's WE SPEAK IN SECRET
Roy Boney's We Speak in Secret is one of many stories that will be in Tales of the Mighty Code Talkers: Volume 1, to be published by the Indigenous Narratives Collective (INC Comics). Boney's story was...
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Thumbs up for Cynthia Leitich Smith's FERAL CURSE
The protagonist of Cynthia Leitich Smith's Feral Curse is named Kayla. Her parents are white. She is black. She was adopted. From Ethiopia.Intrigued?There's more. Lots more. And though it might seem...
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"True Blood Brothers" in NBC's production of Peter Pan
In an earlier post, I wrote about how NBC had hired a Chickasaw man to rework the "Ugg-A-Wugg" song, replacing that phrase with a word used by the Wyandott people. Other musical changes were made, too,...
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Rebecca Heller's FALLING ROCK
Sometime in November I received an email from Rebecca Heller asking if I'd review her book, Falling Rock. What little I saw of it suggested it was stereotypical. Because it was a self-published book, I...
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Oliver Herford's THE PETER PAN ALPHABET
A colleague in children's literature, Perry Nodelman, has been sharing his collection of images of Indians in Peter Pan books illustrated by various authors over the last 100 years. If you want to see...
View ArticleConcerns with McGraw Hill's "Reading Wonders" Curriculum
Do you remember the books you used in elementary school? The ones you used for Reading? Maybe your kids are in elementary school and their Reading books are in your home, right now. I certainly...
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Open Letter to VoWac Publishing Company
December 10, 2014VoWac Publishing CompanyP.O. Box 75Faulkton, SD 57438-0075info@vowac.comDear VoWac,From your website, I see that you've been developing and providing curriculum materials for schools...
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Tim Tingle's HOUSE OF PURPLE CEDAR
Tim Tingle's House of Purple Cedar is one of the best books I've ever read. Here's the cover:As is the case with Tingle's other books, his storytelling voice radiates from the printed words in his...
View ArticleAICL's Best Books of 2014
Lists! People love lists. I do, too. For those of you looking for a list of Best Books published in 2014, by American Indians/First Nations writers, and by writers who aren't Native but got-it-right,...
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CRAZY HORSE'S GIRLFRIEND, by Erika Wurth
The setting for Erika Wurth's Crazy Horse's Girlfriend is Idaho Springs, Colorado. The characters in her story all feel real. Their stories, their lives? Real. Something seemingly simple, like this...
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A CHILDREN'S GUIDE TO ARCTIC BIRDS by Mia Pelletier, illustrated by Danny...
When my daughter was in college, one of the elective courses she took was about birds. It contrasted with the readings she was doing in philosophy and history. For years we'd talked about philosophy...
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Neal Shusterman's UNWHOLLY and UNSOULED
On September 25, 2014, I uploaded my review of Shusterman's short story, UnStrung. It is part of his UnWind Dystology, set in the future, after a civil war.In UnStrung (published in 2012), most of the...
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A Remembrance of Choctaw Writer, Greg Rodgers
Choctaw writer and storyteller, Greg Rodgers, passed away last night.Greg Rodgers1968-2014Several years ago at a conference, Tim Tingle introduced me to Greg. Like Tim, Greg was a Choctaw storyteller....
View ArticleEoin Colfer's THE RELUCTANT ASSASSIN (WARP BOOK 1)
One of the main characters in Eoin Colfer's The Reluctant Assassin (Disney-Hyperion, 2013) is a 16 year old girl named Chevron Savano who is kind-of-sort-of an FBI agent (p. 21-22):At five foot six she...
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The History Channel's app, FRONTIER HEROES
Did you know that the History Channel has a "Planet H" that is creating apps? Just released yesterday (December 19, 2014) is Frontier Heroes. Don't buy it. It is supposed to be educational material...
View ArticleNick Lake's THERE WILL BE LIES
Earlier today I finished reading a NetGalley copy of Nick Lake's There Will Be Lies. Due out in January of 2015, I do not recommend it.The front matter for There Will be Lies includes a "Dear Reader"...
View ArticleTime Magazine's Almost All White list of 100 BEST YOUNG ADULT BOOKS OF ALL TIME
Let's take a look at Time Magazine's list of 100 best young adult books of all time. Here's how they compiled that list (adding this info a couple of hours after I loaded this post):To honor the best...
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