The Ghost Dance - Hardcover

McLerran, Alice

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0773728988 ISBN 13: 9780773728981

Publisher: Stoddart Kids, 1995

Synopsis

When the bountiful world of their ancestors was no more, the Paiute prophets had visions of a dance that would restore it. The ghost dance movement began in hope as native peoples came together to to dance for their shared dream. The dream failed and they tried again. Again the dream failed tragically. But the vision and the dream still call out to all people. It is a story that has not yet ended.

About this title

About the Author:

Alice McLerran is the author of The Mountain That Loved a Bird and I Want to Go Home.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 3-6?McLerran's elegant, spare text begins by describing the result of white settlers' relentless westward movement in the U.S. The scenario is one often related in books sympathetic to Native Americans: buffalo, their hides stripped, left to rot on the prairie; streams stripped of fish; and herds of elk and buffalo depleted. In poetic prose, she talks about a Paiute visionary, Tavibo, and his son who each dreamed that if Native peoples danced, the white people would disappear and the ghosts of the wildlife that had been decimated would return. Twice, word of the Ghost Dance spread through the Native nations. But both attempts at coming together in a sacred, nonviolent ceremony ended in violence to the Native Americans, as their actions were interpreted as warlike. McLerran encourages readers to hold on to the vision of the Dance, and to unite across the boundaries of culture and politics that we created, to heal the world. An afterword provides the necessary background. Morin's thoughtful assemblages contain many objects that place the book in its historic context. The evocative paintings feature a variety of textures. They glow with the golden colors of the sun-drenched prairie, and exhibit a dramatic use of light. The final illustration, a relief map of the world superimposed on a background of many large fish, reinforces the author's optimistic and hopeful vision of environmental healing. This stunning book will hold great appeal for environmentally conscious readers, and will interest classroom teachers seeking a poetic call-to-action.?Ellen Fader, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Stoddart Kids
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0773728988
• ISBN 13: 9780773728981
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 26
• Illustrator: Morin Paul