Broken Feather - Hardcover

Kay, Verla

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399235507 ISBN 13: 9780399235504

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile, 2002

Synopsis

With the arrival of the white man, Broken Feather knows that things are changing in the world around him and so must maintain true to his heritage despite the troubling times ahead for he and his family.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 4-Through poetry, with young Broken Feather as the focus, Kay attempts to tell the history of the Nez Perc‚ and their relations with white hunters, settlers, and, of course, the Army. However, not once in the text are people referred to by their tribal affiliation. They are always called Natives. Kay manages to get quite a bit of stereotyping into her minimal text as well ("Natives crouch-"; "Wise men chanting,/Tall, proud stance"; "Angry faces,/Stomping feet"). The illustrations, polychrome relief-block prints, demonstrate "my visions of his [Broken Feather's] fading world," as Alcorn writes in the illustrator's note. And the images are clearly a white person's idea of what an American Indian should look like. Feathers are in just about everyone's hair. In the end, readers are presented with the highly romanticized view of Broken Feather as an adult in a full feather headdress after the tribe has been forced onto a reservation. The Nez Perc‚ were known for their skills as horsemen and that certainly would have fit in with the romanticized ideal of a Native American as portrayed in this book. However, none of the Native characters shown here have horses until they are defeated by the Army. For better picture books focusing on Native people, stick with books by Joseph Bruchac or Paul Goble.
S K Joiner, Brazoria County Library System, Angleton, TX
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

PreS-Gr. 2. Kay's latest addition to her group of picture books on early life in America that includes Tattered Sails (2001) uses spare verse to describe the history. This book tells a sad story about an archetypal Native American boy called Broken Feather. As Broken Feather and his father observe the "White men riding, / Far from fort," happier times depicted earlier in the book are replaced by warriors chanting and stomping, as well pictures of their eventual removal to a reservation. Unfortunately, Kay's short rhymes, very effective in her previous books, sound stereotypical here because so many old books used broken speech to depict Native American speech: "Father frowning. / Moving here. / Bringing wagons / Cutting trees, / Building houses, / Where they please." Alcorn uses a rich, subtle layering of color on his block-relief prints, and his details match the Nez Perce background for the story. Although it is always better to use a multitude of sources to tell the story of a culture, this provides young children with a good overview of the treatment of original Americans. Susan Dove Lempke
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0399235507
• ISBN 13: 9780399235504
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Alcorn Stephen