About the Book
A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children is a companion to its predecessor published by Oyate, Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children. A compilation of work by Native parents, children, educators, poets and writers, A Broken Flute contains, from a Native perspective, 'living stories,' essays, poetry, and hundreds of reviews of 'children's books about Indians.' It's an indispensable volume for anyone interested in presenting honest materials by and about indigenous peoples to children.
Table of Contents:
1 Foreword
2 Introduction
3 A Cultural Encounter
4 Open Letter to a Non-Indian Teacher
5 Living Stories
6 The Gift of Syrup
7 Frybread- and Feather-Free
8 Old Tsa Tsi
9 Who Stole Oñate's Foot?
10 Charlie's Bundle
11 Dead Pawn
12 No, You Can't Have My Firewood
13 Welcome Home, Our Relative
14 Reviews: Books about "Ishi"
15 Reviews: Books about the California Missions
16 Reviews: Books about the Navajo Long Walk
17 Little House on the Osage Prarie
18 Elsa Remembers
19 My Heart is on the Ground and the Indian Residential School Experience
20 Reviews: Books about the Indian Residential Schools
21 Poems
Chapter 22 Reviews: Books of Poetry
23 Reviews: Sliammon Stories
24 Reviews: Carving a Dream
25 Reviews: Indian Children's Art
Chapter 26 Reviews: Indian Children's Writing
27 Reviews: Arts and Crafts Books
28 Reviews: Photography, "Shooting Back"
29 Reviews: Photoessays of Indian Children
Chapter 30 Photoessays Series
31 A Guide for Evaluating Photoessays
32 Reviews: Books about Dreamcatchers
33 Reviews: Books about Kokopelli
34 When I Look in Your Eyes of Darkness
35 Paul Goble
36 The Buffalo Skull
37 Reviews: Books about Buffalo
38 A Knothead
39 This Is about Coyote
40 Reviews: Books about Coyote
41 Coyote Blue
42 Waterbugs
43 This Is about Raven
44 Reviews: Books about Raven
45 Goodbye Columbus: Take Two
46 Deconstructing the Myths of "The First Thanksgiving"
47 Take Two Coyote Stories and Call me in Your Next Lifetime
48 Reviews: Authors "A" to "Z"
49 The Winona Dilemma
50 No Word for Goodbye
51 About the Contributors
52 Index
About the Author :
Joseph Bruchac's poems, articles and stories have appeared in over 500 publications, and he has authored more than 70 books for adults and children. His honors include a Rockefeller Humanities fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship for Poetry, the Cherokee Nation Prose Award, the Knickerbocker Award, and the Hope S. Dean Award for Notable Achievement in Children's Literature. In 1999, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas. His current project is the graphic novel Dawn Land. Peter Cole was born in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1957. He has written several books of poems, including Hymns & Qualms and Rift, and he has also translated widely from Hebrew and Arabic works--both medieval and modern. He is the recipient of many honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation, a National Jewish Book Award, and a MacArthur Fellowship. He divides his time between Jerusalem and New Haven. Angela Jones is Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Stony Brook University, State University of New York (SUNY), USA. Jones's research interests include sexualities, sex work, Black feminist theory and methods, trans studies, and African American political thought and protest.
Review :
Strong American Indian voices permeate A Broken Flute. In innovative stories at the beginning, adults and young people speak movingly of how certain books have brought pain—or healing—to their lives. Readers of all ages can relate to these powerful words, which vividly reinforce the book reviewers’ excellent critiques. A Broken Flute is a compelling call for truth-telling and healing.
[Seale and Slapin's] latest volume evaluates hundreds of books for children and teenagers published from the early 1900s through 2004, and [it is] more brutally honest than anything else out there. Seale, Slapin, and their reviewers and commentators—noted storytellers, poets, fiction writers, scholars, teachers, and student and community activists—take on Newberry and Caldecott medalists and reading-list perennials for their simplistic, stereotype-filled, condescending, and outright false portrayals of American Indians... Equally valuable are the reflections of the reviewers and their children, in the form of essays and poems, about the negative images perpetrated by mainstream society and its educational system as well as their own efforts to make their voices heard. Here, we see concerned parents and grandparents and strong Indian children who have grown up with the good examples that ultimately stand out in this book.
If you are teaching children's literature to prospective teachers, HeadStart staff, librarians or others who make vital decisions about acquisition and use of appropriate books for kids, you have GOT to own this book. If you are teaching Native American kids, you also must OWN this book. It critically reviews and assesses the cultural authenticity and historical accuracy of hundreds of well-known (and elsewhere highly regarded) children's titles of the past ten years with a particular scrutiny for the taint of misinformation, cultural theft, and lack of balance. Highly Recommended.
Like the authors' earlier work, Through Indian Eyes, A Broken Flute offers essays, critical reviews and commentary on many books about American Indians for children and teenagers. But A Broken Flute also asks us to understand the pain and the anger that the appropriation and misrepresentation of Native history, culture and values by non-Native writers has caused.
This broad collection of criticism exhibits a wide array of opinions. By calling attention to this diversity of Native Voices, A Broken Flute points out the failure of mainstream publishers to represent Native work, and the crucial role that teachers and librarians must play in questioning non-Native work and seeking authentic criticism.
A Broken Flute will be a valuable resource for community and educational organizations, and a key reference for public and school libraries, and Native American collections. Readers will turn to this volume repeatedly, especially because of the multiple indexes, for help with book evaluation and to broaden their understanding of the community in which they work and live.
A superior reference and could serve as the cornerstone for Native American collections.
This is an excellent resource for educators and parents. Summing Up: Highly Recommended. Academic and public libraries serving lower-level undergraduates through graduate students, professionals, and general readers.
The editors intersperse fascinating commentary and essays with cultural and literary criticism. The result is a valuable resource for teachers, scholars and caregivers for children.
This is a highly valuable resource for librarians and educators looking for accurate and culturally authentic books about the Native American experience.
