Author Mary Louise Clifford holds a master's degree in education from Virginia's oldest university, the College of William and Mary. During the course of her graduate work, she followed up on a professor's challenge to explain the English intrusion on the Indians to young readers. The result of her research is When the Great Canoes Came , a retelling of American history that is sure to raise cultural awareness. Joyce Haynes, a resident of Pineville, Missouri, has won numerous local, state, and national awards for her illustrations.
Gr 5-8-- Students and teachers interested in viewing American history from the Native American perspective will enjoy this well-researched and footnoted fictionalized account of the colonization of Virginia as related by Cockacoeske, the 17th-century Pamunkey Indian who is a successor to Chief Powhatan. In a bittersweet, nostalgic voice, Cockacoeske tells her story and that of her predecessors to a young boy who may one day succeed her as chief. She relates the episodes gradually as Lost Owl comes time after time with his mother and young friends to learn family history and customs. As a counterpoint to the story she tells, Cockacoeske also tells of events in her own time. Her son recruits Lost Owl's girlfriend to be a companion to a planter and later brings the dying girl back to the reservation. Cockacoeske helplessly expresses her frustration about the inevitable--Lost Owl must seek revenge against the white men. The Chief must try to keep the future a possibility for her people. An epilogue examines the fate of the tribes after the Jamestown Island settlement in 1607. Because the text is not easy, this book is best read by those already acquainted with the historical events. The usefulness and uniqueness of the account is in its vividly historical Native American perspective. Unfortunately, the static black-and-white drawings add little. --Yvonne Frey, Peoria Public Schools, IL
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
