Bruchac, Children of the Longhouse
Hi all - I'm new to this community, but started doing the challenge a while back, so I've got eight books to talk about. I don't remember what order I read them in, so the numbers won't really mean anything...
1. Children of the Longhouse, by Joseph Bruchac (reread, after more than a decade)
This book is set in a Mohawk village prior to the European invasion. It's told from the point of view of an 11-year-old twin brother and sister, and it tells the story of how the boy discovers the plot of a group of older boys to make war on a neighboring village, and how he holds his own against them in a game of lacrosse.
What makes this book stand out is its rich portrayal of Mohawk culture - there are ways in which fiction can paint a much fuller picture of a culture's way of life than any academic text can, and this book does it well. I am part Mohawk and grew up only peripherally exposed to that culture (to simplify things tremendously), and I felt like reading it patched a few of the holes in me, fleshing out some cultural things that I only knew academically (that were lost to me because I was mostly raised in white culture and because of the shattering effects of intergenerational trauma). And even though I usually feel like a foreigner in Mohawk culture, I did see myself reflected in the book in a couple of small ways.
Most everyone else is probably not going to get the same thing out of it that I did. I still recommend it.
1. Children of the Longhouse, by Joseph Bruchac (reread, after more than a decade)
This book is set in a Mohawk village prior to the European invasion. It's told from the point of view of an 11-year-old twin brother and sister, and it tells the story of how the boy discovers the plot of a group of older boys to make war on a neighboring village, and how he holds his own against them in a game of lacrosse.
What makes this book stand out is its rich portrayal of Mohawk culture - there are ways in which fiction can paint a much fuller picture of a culture's way of life than any academic text can, and this book does it well. I am part Mohawk and grew up only peripherally exposed to that culture (to simplify things tremendously), and I felt like reading it patched a few of the holes in me, fleshing out some cultural things that I only knew academically (that were lost to me because I was mostly raised in white culture and because of the shattering effects of intergenerational trauma). And even though I usually feel like a foreigner in Mohawk culture, I did see myself reflected in the book in a couple of small ways.
Most everyone else is probably not going to get the same thing out of it that I did. I still recommend it.