"The glory of white shadbush blossoms on the cover should be used as an excuse to pull it out in the spring and share it!"
We have just won the
15th Annual
Skipping Stones
Honor Awards!
The Skipping Stones Honor Awards recognize 26 exceptional books and teaching resources. Together, they encourage an understanding of the world’s diverse cultures, as well as nature and ecological richness. The selection promotes cooperation, nonviolence, respect for differing viewpoints and close relationships in human societies. Reading books is another way to explore cultures, places and even other time periods. The winners are featured in the summer issue and also on www.SkippingStones.org. 5/15/08
National Children's Choice Book Award Finalist!
We have won the CCBC Choice 2008, Children's Cooperative Book Center Award
&
2008 Notable Children's Book in the
Language Arts
Recommended to teachers by the National Museum of the American Indian, Spring 2008 Education E-Newsletter;
Recommended on National Public Radio's "Tell Me
More" November 2007
Featured in Kirkus Reviews' BEA/ALA Big Book Guide 2007
When the
Shadbush Blooms has been named to this year's list
of Best Children's Books by the Bank
Street College Children's Book Committee! The
Committee reviews over 4000 titles each year for accuracy and literary
quality and considers their emotional impact on children. It chooses the
best 600 books, both fiction and nonfiction, which it lists according to
age and category. The Best Children's Books of the Year: One of
the most comprehensive annotated book lists for children, aged
infant-14. 3/08
Excerpts-
“My grandparent’s grandparents walked beside the same stream where I walk with my brother, and we can see what they saw.” Today when a Lenape Indian girl ventures to the stream to fish for shad, she knows that another girl did the same generations before. Through the cycle of the seasons, what is important has remained: being with family, knowing when berries are ripe for picking, listening to stories in a warm home.
Told by Traditional Sister and Contemporary Sister, each from her own time, this is a book about tradition and about change. Then and now are not so very different when the shadbush blooms.
“The book captures so much that is Native: cycles, the particular roles and joys of people of different ages, plants and animals as integral parts of life, the richness of lives lived simply, and our connection to the past, and thus to the future. The language is crystalline, pure and sparkling, nothing wasted; nothing more needed.” ‹ Karen Cody Cooper (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma), Museum Training Coordinator, National Museum of the American Indian.
“Both text and pictures invite you in, not as a stranger viewing a different culture, but a welcome guest.... it does not imbed a Native nation in the distant past. Instead, we see both then and now side by side, deeply connected, flowing into each other.” ‹Joseph Bruchac, Abenaki storyteller and writer.
“Over and against the
plethora of “multicultural” writing for young children, this is the one
I would choose to show them our pre-conquest lives: the balance of life,
the belonging to the land and to each other, and how, for the fortunate
among us, it still is that way. The traditions live, we adapt; what
sustained us then, sustains now.” ‹Doris Seale (Dakota,
Cree, and Abenaki), poet, and editor/author of
Through Indian Eyes and A Broken
Flute.
What People Are Saying -
"The glory of white shadbush blossoms on the cover should be used as an excuse to pull it out in the spring and share it!"
From:http://kidslit.menashalibrary.org/archives/017347.html
January 10, 2008 Posted by Tasha Saecker on January
10, 2008 1:45 PM
When the Shadbush Blooms is available
from your local bookstore,
Oyate or you may order a
signed edition from
www.whentheshadbushblooms.com
A great gift idea for a family member, teacher or group leader.
When the Shadbush
Blooms by Carla Messinger with Susan Katz,
illustrated by David Kanietakeron Fadden.
Books in which Native American traditions are
accurately portrayed are very few, especially in picture book format.
To have a traditional Native American side-by-side with a
contemporary one is nearly unheard of.
In this picture book, you will see the traditional way of life
alongside the contemporary one.
There is a constant tie between the two, but each is unique and
lovely in its own way. The
book moves through the year from month to month, starting with the When
the Shad fish Return Moon and circling to a finish with the same month
again. The book ends with
additional information on the Lenni Lenape people, meaning that this is
not meant to be a more general Native American story, but distinct to a
people. This alone makes it
worthy of attention, because so many Native titles are left
meaninglessly generic where these specific traditions and people bring
life and accuracy to the story.
The text of the book is clear and has a great
rhythm even though it is prose.
There is a consistent tie to nature and wildlife in each month
that makes the passing of the months fascinating.
The illustrations are the real bridges between the modern and the
historical. The same setting
is used for both periods and they share the same space, making the point
of the text all the more clear for readers.
Highly recommended, this book is perfect to use when discussing calendars with children. I would hate to see it relegated to only being pulled out during a unit on Native Americans around Thanksgiving. Instead, the glory of white shadbush blossoms on the cover should be used as an excuse to pull it out in the spring and share it.
Celebrate First Nations!
First Nations Public Libraries Week (Feb. 11 to 16, 2008). Celebrate the end of this special week by reading these excellent aptly-themed stories from the Timmins Public Library..... When the Shadbush Blooms by Carla Messinger with Susan Katz (Tricycle Press, Ages 5-10) Past and present meet in this unique picture book, told side-by-side by Traditional Sister and Contemporary Sister. The story moves through the year using the Lenni Lenape calendar, beginning and ending in spring with When the Shad fish Return Moon or Mechoammawi Gischuch. Each passing month has a specific link to nature, and the text explains how even 400 years apart, the young girls spend time with their loving families doing similar activities. This book about tradition, change and nature's cycle is illustrated by David Kanietakeron Fadden. Getting the Word Out, written by Jose Gagnon Timmins Daily Press in Ontario, Canada
More
Deserving of the Caldecott,
September 14, 2007
"While the beautiful illustrations may first attract you to Where the Shadbush Blooms, the words that describe the feeling of joy that children take in their families now, and took long ago--and the simple pleasures that hold families together--will hold you and any child. Kids will be fascinated by the historical differences in clothing and tools, and interested in similarities over time. They will ask you to read and reread the story, and they will love trying to pronounce the Lenni Lenape words for the seasons and the moons. (The authors wisely included a pronunciation dictionary along with the background of the tribe.) The book holds potential for family conversation, games, and challenges--not to mention those in a classroom. While it describes the Original People, it applies to all people and to the strength of families everywhere. It deserves to win the Caldecott." Susan Gilbert Beck, former Children's Librarian, Librarian and Information Specialist, Certified Teacher, Emanda, Inc.
More
"The book is beautiful. The concept is brilliantly simple in the way of all truth, richly opening the door to that subtle reality of All Time that is so elusive to the Western mind. "The berries ripen, dangling like tiny hearts" is a gorgeous line, as is "I lick from one finger a drop as sweet as summer." The emphasis on chasing the crows vs. on the plants, themselves, is so joyous and really opens the reader's mind to the flutter of wings-- fabulous, just fabulous to then be given "when the tall stalks rustle". And I love the generational difference expressed by how fast the corn gets eaten.
It's magical the way it starts from the perspective of the deer and how it ends with the deer being within a larger universe that includes the stream and the people." From Linda Griffith
Kirkus Review, Big Book Guide - BEA/ALA (Book Expo Association/American Library Association), Spring 2007
When the
Shadbush Blooms
Carla Messinger with Susan Katz Illustrated by David Kanietakeron Fadden
Tricycle Press / September 9781582461922 / $15.95 American culture
“When the Shadbush Blooms demonstrates how much Lenape children share with children of every other heritage,” says the author, “family relationships, seasonal activities, work and play. At the same time, it shows how similar all of those activities and relationships today are to those experienced by Lenape children centuries ago.” David Kanietakeron Fadden’s artwork reproduces the evergreen qualities of planting a garden, fishing for shad, harvest festivals—stories that pass on traditions and keep the dark of night at bay. “My ancestors invented their own calendar based on the local environment,” says Messinger. “This was a long time ago, and we still use the calendar today. It is but one element that serves to remind Native children of their contributions and instills cultural pride. It’s not easy being a Native American, especially a child, as the discrimination is so subtle and pervasive. I hope that showing the continuity of Native culture and its commonality with other cultures will give non-Native children a better understanding of our past and present, and of the humanity that we share. I hope, too, that the book will be useful to Lenape children. They are our future leaders and need to be reminded that we are still ‘The People.’ We have endured; we are still here.” And Messinger offers great tribute to that fact."
Kirkus Review Fall, 2007
...."A three-page author's note about the Lenni Lenape is informative
and useful. This is a gentle introduction to the fact that Native
Americans are an important part of our history-and of our present.
(Picture book. 6-10)"