The New Americans: Colonial Times: 1620-1689 (The American Story)
by Betsy Maestro
from HarperTrophy
This ongoing series introduces our country's history to young readers in an appealing picture-book format. Clear, simple texts combine with informative, accurate illustrations to help young people develop an understanding of America's past and present.
The New Americans is the story of the colonists -- the more than two hundred thousand new Americans -- who came over from Europe and struggled to build a home for themselves in a new world.
Whale Song: A Novel
by Cheryl Kaye Tardif
from Kunati Inc.
In Cheryl Kaye Tardif's heart-wrenching Whale Song, haunting native legends merge with the modern world as two cultures collide, and a young woman struggles with long-forgotten memories of her mother's suicide.
Thirteen years ago, Sarah Richardson's life was shattered when her mother committed suicide. The shocking tragedy left a grief-stricken teen-aged Sarah with partial amnesia.
Some things are easier to forget.
But now a familiar voice from her past sends Sarah, a talented mid-twenties ad exec, back to her past. A past that she had thought was long buried.
Some things are meant to be buried.
Torn by nightmares and visions of a yellow-eyed wolf, yet aided by the creatures of the Earth and by the killer whales that call to her in the night, Sarah must face her fears and uncover the truth―even if it destroys her.
Some things are meant to be remembered―at all cost.
Sorceress (Witch Child)
by Celia Rees
from Candlewick
For the legions of readers spellbound by WITCH CHILD, here’s the fascinating next chapter - thanks to a Native American descendant with an uncanny link to the past.
Agnes closed her eyes in the heat and steam of the sweat lodge. She woke to air that was dry and cold around her. She was no longer Agnes, or even Karonhisake, Searching Sky. She was no longer American or Haudenosaunee. She was English, and her name was Mary, and she woke to find that she was dying, freezing to death.
It came to Agnes unbidden - a vision of Mary Newbury, alone in the snow, dying of the cold. A vision of a young woman who had lived in the 1600s, who had been driven from her Puritan settlement, accused of being a witch. It was an image of a woman whose life was about to change radically as she embarked on an existence that defied all accepted norms - embracing passionate independence, love, and loyalty to a proud, endangered community that accepted her as one of their own. Mary’s and Agnes’s lives have been separated by almost 400 years, but they are inextricably linked by more than blood. For, like Mary, Agnes has special powers - and Mary now seeks these powers to ensure that the rest of her story is told.
The Winter People
by Joseph Bruchac
from Puffin
Saxso is fourteen when the British attack his village. It’s 1759, and war is raging in the northeast between the British and the French, with the Abenaki people—Saxso’s people—by their side. Without enough warriors to defend their homes, Saxso’s village is burned to the ground. Many people are killed, but some, including Saxso’s mother and two sisters, are taken hostage. Now it’s up to Saxso, on his own, to track the raiders and bring his family back home . . . before it’s too late.
The Huron Carol
by Frances Tyrrell
from Eerdmans Books for Young Readers
Originally written in the early 1600s and in the native language of the Huron, this celebration of the age-old Christmas carol features lyrics in Huron, French, and English and a musical arrangement.
Moccasin Thunder: American Indian Stories for Today
by Lori Marie Carlson
from HarperTeen
The ten stories that make up this collection are raw, original, and fresh. Although they are all about American Indians, they are as different from one another as they are from anything you've read before.
A supermarket checkout line, a rowboat on a freezing lake at dawn, a drunken dance in the gym, an ice hockey game on public-access TV. These are some of the backgrounds against which ten outstanding authors have created their memorable characters. Their work -- both poignant and funny, sarcastic and serious -- reminds us that the American Indian story is far from over -- it's being written every day.
Yellow Line (Orca Soundings)
by Sylvia Olsen
from Orca Book Publishers
The lines that divide are not always solid. (RL2.4) (20051130)
The Ransom of Mercy Carter
by Caroline B. Cooney
from Laurel Leaf
Deerfield, Massachusetts is one of the most remote, and therefore dangerous, settlements in the English colonies. In 1704 an Indian tribe attacks the town, and Mercy Carter becomes separated from the rest of her family, some of whom do not survive. Mercy and hundreds of other settlers are herded together and ordered by the Indians to start walking. The grueling journey -- three hundred miles north to a Kahnawake Indian village in Canada -- takes more than 40 days. At first Mercy's only hope is that the English government in Boston will send ransom for her and the other white settlers. But days turn into months and Mercy, who has become a Kahnawake daughter, thinks less and less of ransom, of Deerfield, and even of her "English" family. She slowly discovers that the "savages" have traditions and family life that soon become her own, and Mercy begins to wonder: If ransom comes, will she take it?
From the Hardcover edition.
The Inuksuk Book (Wow Canada! Collection)
by Mary Wallace
from Maple Tree Press
The Inuksuk Book offers a fresh glimpse into the culture, customs, and ingenuity of the Inuit by examining the symbolic information revealed in the mysterious inuksuk. Found throughout the Far North, inuksuit are stone structures that act in the place of human beings to communicate knowledge essential for Arctic survival. Through the collective wisdom of Inuit elders and noted experts, archival photography, and the author's own exquisite silk paintings, the reader is introduced to the ten major types of structures and is shown how they have provided travelers with information on location, danger spots, food storage, hallowed land, and hunting grounds.
Stones, Bones and Stitches: Storytelling through Inuit Art (A Lord Museum Book)
by Shelley Falconer
from Tundra Books
Did you know?
-Cape Dorset boasts the largest number of artists per capita in Canada (22.7 percent — almost one-quarter of the labor force and thirty times the national average!)
-The word Eskimo is a derogatory term meaning “eaters
of raw flesh”
-Some Inuit artists quarry stone for their sculptures in the winter, but have to wait until the summer to bring it back to their workshops
-An igloo uses the same design principles found in the great cathedrals of Europe
-According to legends, the stone figures, called Inukshuks, protect travelers and point them to the safest pathway
-The Inuit have been carving for over 4,000 years
Stones, Bones and Stitches is a fascinating and beautiful introduction to the art of the North. Focusing on several important works from the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, curators Shelley Falconer and Shawna White take you on an impressive journey through the artistic landscape. The evolving character of the North is explored through the lens of some of Canada’s most significant Inuit artists, past and present.
Included are eight different works from sculpture to prints, each highlighted with introductions to the artists, the materials they used, geography, legends, and stories. Photographs together with intriguing facts give the reader insight into the artists’ lives, communities, and working conditions along with brief histories of the region.
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