Doesn't Fall off His Horse (A Kiowa Tale) - Hardcover

Stroud, Virginia A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803716346 ISBN 13: 9780803716346

Publisher: Dial, 1994

Synopsis

Saygee's great-grandfather tells her the story of how he got his name, Doesn't Fall Off His Horse

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Reviews

Grade 1-4-Saygee visits her great-grandfather, who shows her one of his treasures, a leopard-skin quiver, and tells her of an adventure when the lucky quiver didn't help him "make a coup." (The concept of counting coup is explained). He and his young friends in his Kiowa band sneak out of camp and steal ponies from a nearby Comanche camp. The raid is successful, but the narrator is badly wounded from a rifle shot. Clinging to his pony and to the leads of two others, he makes it back home and unexpectedly recovers. Although the elders criticize the boys' bad judgment and foolishness, they praise their bravery and bestow an adult warrior name on the narrator-Doesn't Fall Off His Horse. The artist, a Cherokee, retells this incident from her adoptive Kiowa grandfather's childhood. Her paintings are slightly reminiscent of Paul Goble's linear, stylized, brightly colored art, but they are denser and more naturalistic, with less patterning, than his work. Stroud's palette is especially rich in blues. Although Native American picture books are proliferating, this one is notable for depicting children within their culture as both independent and accountable.
Patricia (Dooley) Lothrop Green, St. George's School, Newport, RI
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Saygee's great-grandfather, almost 100 years old, is "like a living book," made up of so many stories. During his life great changes have come to his people, the Kiowas, and much time has passed since he earned his warrior name, Doesn't Fall Off His Horse. He tells Saygee how he won that name in his youth, unfolding the tale in stirring, carefully crafted prose. His story is of a brush with death; of bravery and foolishness; of Native American traditions. Stealing horses from Comanches to "count coup" (dishonor an enemy and demonstrate one's own courage), he and his comrades escape the Comanche camp-although he takes a bullet in the neck. In her first picture book, Stroud writes so vividly that the hot breath of the pursuing Comanches can almost be felt. Equally effective are boldly colored yet delicately patterned acrylics. Horses sport coats of violet, manes of aqua, and yet they do not seem unreal. The illustrations, like the text, stream with movement. Ages 6-9.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Saygee's great-grandfather is nearly a hundred years old, and when she comes upon him staring out the window of his room, he tells her the story of his Kiowa Indian name, ``Doesn't Fall Off His Horse.'' It is the tale of a raid he and a friend made on a neighboring Comanche camp to steal some ponies and to ``make a coup,'' which he tells Saygee ``is like a game of tag--a very serious and dangerous game that we played to embarrass and show dishonor to the enemy tribes.'' Saygee's great-grandfather is shot in the neck by a Comanche bullet during the coup, but he doesn't fall off his horse, hence his name. He makes it back to camp and is nursed back to health. An aura of sadness hangs over this well-told story, which is as much about what it's like to grow old and look back at one's youth as it is about Kiowa traditions. Stroud, a Cherokee who was adopted into a Kiowa family, writes beautifully about her adoptive family, and her colorful paintings provide a vibrant backdrop for this unusual book. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 6-9) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ages 6-9. A young Kiowa girl sits in her grandfather's room and hears the story of how he got his name, Doesn't Fall Off His Horse. As a young man (apparently a teenager), grandfather and his friends raided a Comanche camp to steal ponies. When the boys were discovered by the Comanches and tried to flee with their booty, grandfather was shot in the neck. Seriously wounded, he held on to his horse: "Later I was told that my hands had to be pried from the ropes attached to the ponies that I'd pulled across the prairie." Stroud, a Cherokee by birth, uses brilliant acrylic landscapes and bright geometrics to depict the richly variegated, vanished lifestyle of her adoptive Kiowa ancestors, which she frames within the larger picture of a modern family's life. A brief glossary defines a few unfamiliar terms in this multilevel, semiautobiographical tale. Janice Del Negro

Edition details

• Publisher: Dial
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803716346
• ISBN 13: 9780803716346
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32