Native/First Nations/American Indian Literature for Youth

A Case Study:

Evaluation of Hearts Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Quality: I think the book cover was the best feature of this book. However, I particularly question pictures of women whose face is not included or is not visible especially for women of color who are already invisible to American society. Using feathers signals to the readers that the book might contain Native American characters at first blush. The pastel color scheme is welcoming.

Language/Speech: The main character, Louise Wolfe, is the first-person narrator and the language, speech and internal dialogue seems to be in line with high schoolers’ perspectives whose parents are educated and are from upper middle-class families despite being minorities.

This was a hard book for me to read and be kept interested in. I do not only read into the themes, characterization and appropriate cultural representation, but the whole structure of the story. I read like a writer and therefore a lot of YA books are hard reads for me.

With Hearts Unbroken, the language is severely lacking. My question for most current YA novels is to have plots and characters that young people can identify with and relate to and in order to do that, the author must water down the setting and character description. It must also be mainly plot-driven. Because of this, there is no extensive character development either. Does YA have to have the same overused “Breakfast Club” or “Sixteen Candles” trope? The girl from the other side of the tracks likes the rich, preppy boy who is a jerk to her for the sake of saving face from family and friends for liking/loving someone who is below them? Yes, the second boy Louise liked is Joey, a Lebanese American boy who also suffers from the same over generalization and stereotype that Louise, herself, was guilty of projecting on to him which was a nice touch because this stepped out of the stereotypes a little bit. But the story didn’t explore the root of Louise’s perception besides as a nervous reaction to her conceived rejection by him. Was it because she also is subliminally being affected by white washing? Also, must YA always involve sex and alcohol? I understand this is part of teen life and is somewhat universal, but why must we always go there so that a novel can be “contemporary” and “timely”? Minority cultures have always grappled with marrying or being romantically involved with the majority race and all the baggage that comes with it. Louise’s romantic interest with Joey missed the mark of any lasting impression or redemptive qualities of both being of minority cultures.

I debunk the theory that YA novels must be watered down for it to be understood. High schoolers were required to read classics, stories that are complex with rich and difficult language and were set in the past, an era that contemporary high school students didn’t know anything about and were expected to summarize and deconstruct the story. A lot of novels that are mainly dialogue and not descriptive, lose a lot of quality and complexities.

Yes, Hearts Unbroken is an “insiders” story, because the author and the characters are Native Americans. I am extremely aware of what the literary market buys and sells. Therefore, good writers tend to sell out to what is being well-received in the market. Also, most prestigious MFA in Creative Writing program hire teachers who are writers that have been published by reputable publishers because it also increases their clout. Therefore, the easy way to break into the market, to me, is the YA market.

Characters’ Development: Regarding the character development of this book I would have loved to learn more about Louise’s parents’ experiences growing up in the tribal community and compare it with Louise’s experience of not growing up in that environment. Yes, Native American’s modern experiences are not the same as old Native American’s experiences, but I’d like to know more of how tradition is being passed down, what is being lost. The novel did touch on a little of this, but the focus was the boys Louise liked, the racial divide of equal representation in the Wizard of Oz and the silencing and cover ups that are being employed by the racist groups behind the silencing. I enjoyed the cerebral and artistic expression of Louise and her brother, Hughie, being involved in journalism and theater and how Hughie stood up in protest against what Wizard of Oz’s author, L. Frank Baum, represented: violent racist ideologies against Native Americans during the early expansion of the United States, which was touching. It was the novel’s most being “awoke” part.

Cultural Background: The novel introduced other characters, cousins, aunts and uncles of Louise’s that were also from other tribes, so this provided some variety; however, again, falls short to show the significance of this other than surface level diversity.

Lifestyle: Not much of the Native American condition or culture has been depicted, only superficial, depthless mentions and representations.

Does it celebrate the culture portrayed? Yes, it celebrates culture and unity and debunks myths and cultural misappropriations in a few scenes, but it is only desultory.

Authors/illustrators background or sources: The author, Cynthia Leitich Smith, is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Indian Nation who won the 2020 AILA (American Indian Library Association) American Indian Youth Literature Award with Hearts Unbroken in the YA category and other awards.

Critics/Reviews: The thing about reading book reviews is discerning the consensus with a grain of salt and trust your instincts about why you felt drawn to a novel or not. It’s like a watching a movie that received rave reviews but didn’t quite do it for you. Therefore, reading like a writer is important because a lot of what is being reviewed is just the novelty of a novel’s premise and not the literary techniques employed.

I wrote my review above before I searched out other reviews and found that I am not alone. A not so glowing review by Kirkus says, “…overly didactic attempts to teach readers about verbal and visual microaggressions and Native stereotypes, and parenthetical asides that read more like authorial intrusions as opposed to the inner thoughts readers would assume from the story’s first-person narration hold it back.”

Another review by Children’s Books & Media Review states:

“Plot events are melodramatic at best and eyeroll-inducing at worst. The awareness this book is trying to spread about being mindful of other people’s heritage and race, as well as not condoning artists’ racist or bigoted attitudes, is very much needed and appreciated. However, it is very unfortunate that the writing, chapter breaks, characterization, and more are so choppy and inconsistent. This book would be much more effective if it were not written so poorly”.

In short, I believe I already explained why the overall quality of Hearts Unbroken is poor.

References

Andrus, Meagan. Hearts Unbroken. Children’s Book & Media Review. 2018. <http://byucbmr.com/reviews/hearts-unbroken/2018/10/8>.

Kirkus Reviews. Hearts Unbroken. 2018. < https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/cynthia-leitich-smith/hearts-unbroken/>.

Smith, Cynthia Leitich. Hearts Unbroken. Candlewick Press. 2018.

Top 5 Books List

Native American YA Novels

Who Will Tell My Brother by Marlene Carvell

International Reading Association Children’s Book Award Winner Determined to sway high school officials to remove disparaging Indian mascots, Evan assumes a struggle that spirals him onto a soul-searching journey and exposes him to a barrage of bullying, taunts, and escalating violence. Marlene Carvell’s striking first novel is a timely look at a true story of a mixed-race teen caught up in an exploration of his past, his culture, and his identity. – Amazon description : https://www.amazon.com/Who-Will-Tell-My-Brother/dp/0786816570 (Links to an external site.) – published by Hyperion Books for Children, 2002.

I chose this book not because it is another wonderful novel in poem form, but because it grapples with the search for identity. The narrator grapples with his place in the world as a boy with Native American ancestry, confronting violence, silencing and racism. Marlene Carvell received her MFA from UT Austin.

(part of a poem on page 149)
Epilogue

…We come together

to let the world see who we are,

to let the world see that we are people with histories,

with similar, but different histories,

to let the world see that we are people with feelings,

with similar, but different feelings.

I know my struggle is not over.

It is a struggle which will continue

As long as people see others as different.

But I know I have made a difference.

And I know I am no longer alone.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author’s own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character’s art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.

With a foreword by Markus Zusak, interviews with Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney, and four-color interior art throughout, this edition is perfect for fans and collectors alike.- Amazon Description https://www.amazon.com/Absolutely-True-Diary-Part-Time-Indian/dp/0316013692 (Links to an external site.)

I chose this book because it is by my favorite Native American writer, Sherman Alexie. Normally, I do not like first person narratives because the dialogue, language, perspectives is limited to the first person. Luckily, Alexie’s writing has always had a strong voice. Even with his raw grit and honesty, his prose and diction is rich and descriptive. All of Sherman Alexie’s novels should be included on the Native American YA list.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie

Sherman Alexie’s celebrated first collection, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, established its author as one of America’s most important and provocative voices. The basis for the award-winning movie Smoke Signals, it remains one of his best loved and widely praised books twenty years after its initial publication.

Vividly weaving memory, fantasy, and stark reality to paint a portrait of life in and around the Spokane Indian reservation, this book introduces some of Alexie’s most beloved characters, including Thomas Builds-the-Fire, the storyteller who no one seems to listen to, and his compatriot, Victor, the sports hero who turned into a recovering alcoholic. Now with an updated introduction from Alexie, these twenty-four tales are narrated by characters raised on humiliation and government-issue cheese, and yet they are filled with passion and affection, myth and charm. Against a backdrop of addiction, car accidents, laughter, and basketball, Alexie depicts the distances between men and women, Indians and whites, reservation Indians and urban Indians, and, most poetically, modern Indians and the traditions of the past. –Amazon description https://www.amazon.com/Ranger-Tonto-Fistfight-Heaven-Anniversary/dp/0802121993 (Links to an external site.)

This is one of Sherman Alexie’s classics. This is a short story collection that presents new characters and new plot lines in each short story with Native American perspectives and struggles.

How can you go wrong with the first paragraph opening in “Every Little Hurricane” chapter?

“Although it was winter, the nearest ocean four hundred miles away, and the Tribal Weatherman asleep because of boredom, a hurricane dropped from the sky in 1976 and fell so hard on the Spokane Indian Reservation that knocked Victor from bed and his latest nightmare.”

Alexie extends the metaphor of a hurricane and hurricane forecasts throughout the dialogue of characters and the story and the metaphor of “fight”.

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

The Round House won the National Book Award for fiction.

One of the most revered novelists of our time—a brilliant chronicler of Native-American life—Louise Erdrich returns to the territory of her bestselling, Pulitzer Prize finalist The Plague of Doves with The Round House, transporting readers to the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota. It is an exquisitely told story of a boy on the cusp of manhood who seeks justice and understanding in the wake of a terrible crime that upends and forever transforms his family.

Riveting and suspenseful, arguably the most accessible novel to date from the creator of Love Medicine, The Beet Queen, and The Bingo Palace, Erdrich’s The Round House is a page-turning masterpiece of literary fiction—at once a powerful coming-of-age story, a mystery, and a tender, moving novel of family, history, and culture. – Amazon description https://www.amazon.com/Round-House-Novel-Louise-Erdrich/dp/0062065254 (Links to an external site.) – published by Harper Perennial, 2012.

I chose this novel because Louise Aldrich is a notable writer in both YA and adult literature. Her prose is exquisite, and her storytelling ability is above par. Aldrich’s prose is filled with beautiful description of setting and she is keen to observation and includes the details of the natural world.

“We walked up a dirt driveway. Alongside it in a strict row, Mom had planted the pansy seedlings she’d grown in paper milk cartons. She’d put them out early. The only flower that could stand a frost” (6).

The Keepers Series by Michael J. Caduto and Joseph Bruchac

Beginning with Native American stories, this invaluable resource provides hands-on activities that inspire children to understand and appreciate Native American cultures and the Earth. -Fulcrum Publishing, 1997.

About the Author

Joseph Bruchac, coauthor of The Keepers of the Earth series, is a nationally acclaimed Native American storyteller and writer who has authored more than 70 books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for adults and children. He lives in upstate New York. Michael J. Caduto is an award-winning and internationally known author, master storyteller, poet, musician, educator, and ecologist. He has received numerous awards, including the New York State Outdoor Education Association’s Art and Literary Award, New England’s Regional Award for Excellence in Environmental Education, the American Booksellers’ “Pick of the List” Award, and the Association of Children’s Booksellers’ Choice Award, among others. He travels widely presenting environmental and cultural performances, speeches and workshops for children and adults. His recent books include Earth Tales from Around the World and The Crimson Elf: Italian Tales of Wisdom. He lives in Vermont. – Amazon description https://www.amazon.com/Keepers-Earth-American-Environmental-Activities/dp/1555913857/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=native+american+ya&qid=1585504489&s=books&sr=1-3 (Links to an external site.)

This anthology is part of a series. Keepers of the Earth includes Native American stories from all areas of North America to include creation myths. After each story is set of discussion and question topics and activities to coincide with the story:

i.e.: The Coming of Gluscabi (Chapter 3):

Procedure: Find a natural area that the children can visit periodically, such as a woodland field, pond, or park…During the visit the children will each pick a special spot in that environment. It should be a place in which they enjoy sitting and exploring and one which makes them feel safe.

Become an ant. Lie on your stomach with your eyes close to the ground and imagine you are an ant walking along the soil. What does it look like? Feel like? Smell like” Do you hear any strange sounds?…
Sit upright and do not move. Pretend that you are part of the nature around you… (22).

I think this series is great to include in a collection, especially for teachers and parents who want to include learning Native American folklore and beliefs, interactively.

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A Case Study:

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