The Ledgerbook of Thomas Blue Eagle by Matthaei, Gay

Description: Grade 4-8-This book looks convincingly like a drawn and written record made by a student at the historic Carlisle Indian School in the late 19th century, but it is in fact a work of fiction. Thomas describes aspects of his life on the plains with his beloved pony, Two Painted Horse. A Crow raid and his own successful coup against a white trapper provide narrative incident. Most of the story involves the boy's adjustment to the school, where he learns the white man's ways without rejecting his own. But for whom is he creating this account. Why does he describe his still-viable culture in the past tense. And, most important, why interpolate a fantastic incident from Lakota legend (better retold in Rosebud Yellow Robe's Tonweya and the Eagles [Dial, 1992]) into an otherwise realistic account. Such questions may hardly occur to readers taken with the look of this book-its copperplate, hand-written text and the "aged," colourful, pictograph-like art. Everything so suggests an authentic document (the authors' research and a Lakota advisor further vouch for the background veracity) that the inconspicuous fictional disclaimer at the back may be overlooked. If the volume's loose narrative cohesion is also verisimilar, the liveliness and interest of the art is a real counterweight.Patricia (Dooley) Lothrop Green, St. George's School, Newport, RICopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Price: 22.68 USD

Location: East Hanover, NJ

End Time: 2024-12-20T16:26:28.000Z

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