This book would be really beneficial to teach so that students could get a real world inside look into the lives of those who live or surround Indian Reservations- telling them that in many ways, they really aren't that different from our own traditions and cultures.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Grass Dancer
When starting this book, I didn't really know what I was going to be reading. Upon finishing the book, however, I was pleasantly surprised at my liking it. This book follows the stories of a number of interconnected people living on or around an indian reservation. This book had many twists and turns that I was not expecting- the first being the death of Pumpkin. I thought that this would be more of a love story between Harley and Pumpkin, so the accident and her death within the first 50 pages was a huge shock. I liked that this book gave a lot of background. It started in 1981 and went backwards over the span of about 20 years and then came back to 1982 (a year after Pumpkin's death). By doing this we got a glimpse of how the traditions of Native Americans shifted from generation to generation. Instead of the present day characters just emphasizing how important tradition was, the author brought us into the some of the characters lives who were just starting to shift out of some of those traditions.
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This book was a really interesting read, especially when read in comparison with Alexie's "Part Time Indian". I think that this book showed some more traditional elements to Native American culture, especially the pow wows and dances that take place. Looking in to these cultures and traditions (in different tribes) would be an interesting assignment for students. It would supplement that information they got from the book, and would also provide them a visual of traditional Native American dance and wardrobe.
ReplyDeleteWhat grade level do you think would benefit the most from this novel? I think an older audience would be the best target group.
-Allison