Good Hunting, Blue Sky; An I Can Read Book

Blue Sky goes out to hunt for meat for his family and comes home with something quite unexpected.

Kindergarten-Grade 2-- A revised edition of Good Hunting, Little Indian (Harper , 1962). The original version depicted a boy dressed as a contemporary Navajo who dwells in a tipi instead of a hogan, and who goes hunting for game with bow and arrow in a forest setting. Watts' new illustrations correct these errors. The boy is now dressed as a member of the Algonquian group. His parents and other tribespeople are clothed and housed authentically for their Eastern woodland forest. Other present-day sensitivities are also addressed. The word "Indian" is completely deleted; the child is now known as Blue Sky. The mother is now featured as prominently as the father, a slight raising of her status. The illustrations are in pleasing full-color rather than the predominant yellows and browns of the 1962 edition. However, Parish's text has also been altered to fit the "I Can Read" formula. For example, "There was a terrible crashing all around him," has now become, "The noise was all around him." This sort of thing has been called "dumbing down," and there is no good reason for it in this instance. --Ruth Semrau, Lovejoy School, McKinney, Tex.
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