Bowman's Store - Softcover

Joseph Bruchac

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1584300272 ISBN 13: 9781584300274

Publisher: Lee & Low Books, 2001

Synopsis

In this book, a consummate storyteller unfolds his most personal and poignant story: his own. Bowmans Store traces the journey of writer Joseph Sonny Bruchac from a childhood filled with an abundance of both love and secrecy, to the dawning of his career as one of the best-known authors and storytellers of Native American history and lore. Compelling, lyrical, and deeply moving, Bruchacs memoir tells how he came to fully understand, and eventually claim, his Abenaki heritage, despite his grandparents unspoken pact never to discuss Grandpas Indian blood. Through experiences both painful and hilarious, Sonny finds himself drawn to all things Indian long before he learns of his grandfathers hidden Abenaki roots. Bowmans Store beautifully weaves themes from Bruchacs intimate knowledge of Native American cultures with vivid autobiographical scenes to create a touching story about self-discovery.

About this title

About the Author:

Joseph Bruchac is an Abenaki Indian. He is among the most respected and widely published Native American authors, with over 100 titles in print, including the popular Keepers of the Earth series and Lee & Low's Crazy Horse's Vision, which received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews. His YA novel, Wolf Mark, is a Westchester Young Adult Fiction Award winner. A Rockefeller Fellow and an NEA Poetry Writing Fellow, he was the 1999 recipient of the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to writing, Bruchac is an editor at Greenfield Review Press, a literary publishing house he cofounded with his wife. He lives in Greenfield Center, New York.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Bruchac (Eagle Song, 1997, etc.) tells of his life, with great compassion for those he loved and for the little boy he was, woven with Abenaki tales from his heritage. ``Sonny'' Bruchac lived with his grandparents in the Adirondack foothills of upstate New York, although his parents and younger sisters were not far away. In stories that spin out in the circular ripples of a pond, he chronicles his growing up, beginning each chapter with a First Peoples' story that illuminates what is to come. He was an undersized, bookish, lonely boy, but he was given extraordinary, sustaining love and wisdom from his grandparents. Readers see the furtive, unfolding truth about the grandfather's Abenaki heritage, a major family tragedy and terrible fear dealt with, the deep bonds with the landscape and wildlife. The writing soars, so well-crafted that readers might overlook that this is as much the story of the grandparents as it is Bruchac's own. Teenagers attempting to resolve their own family knots and tangles will find much here that is resonant, but Bruchac's triumph is in the emotional honesty and limpid strength of his working of the words. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Autobiography. 14+) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Lee & Low Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1584300272
• ISBN 13: 9781584300274
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 392