★ “Erdrich continues her excellent storytelling. She has a knack for creating humorous and endearing characters. This beautiful novel is quick moving and deeply affecting. Readers will thoroughly enjoy following Makoons and learning about Ojibwe life.” — School Library Journal (starred review)
★ “Warm intergenerational moments abound. Erdrich provides fascinating information about Ojibwe daily life. Readers will be enriched by Erdrich’s finely crafted corrective to the Eurocentric dominant narrative of America’s past.” — Horn Book (starred review)
“Erdrich’s simple text and delicate pencil illustrations provide a detailed, honest portrait of Plains life. A warm and welcome addition to the unfolding saga of a 19th-century Ojibwe family.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Erdrich’s direct narrative voice brings readers right into Makoons’s world. A new addition to the Birchbark House saga, launched in 1999, is always an anticipated event.” — ALA Booklist
PRAISE FOR CHICKADEE: “A beautifully evolving story of an indigenous American family.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Readers will absorb the history lesson almost by osmosis; their full attention will be riveted on the story. Every detail anticipates readers’ interest.” — The Horn Book
“Erdrich’s storytelling is masterful. Readers will be more than happy to welcome little Chickadee into their hearts.” — School Library Journal (starred review)
“In the fourth book in Erdrich’s award-winning Birchbark House series, the focus moves to a new generation. As always, the focus is on the way-of-life details as much as the adventure. Most affecting are the descriptions of Makoons’ loneliness without his brother.” — ALA Booklist
“The pleasures of reading the series are not unlike those of reading Laura Ingalls Wilder: Discovering an earlier time in our country through stories of the daily lives of children.” — Newsday.com
PRAISE FOR THE PORCUPINE YEAR: “Based on Erdrich’s own family history, the mischievous celebration will move readers, and so will the anger and sadness. What is left unspoken is as powerful as the story told.” — Booklist (starred review)
PRAISE FOR THE GAME OF SILENCE: “Readers who loved Omakayas and her family in The Birchbark House (1999) have ample reason to rejoice in this beautifully conttructed sequel … Hard not to hope for what comes next for this radiant nine-year old.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Erdrich’s charming pencil drawings interspersed throughout and her glossary of Ojibwe terms round out a beautiful offering.” — School Library Journal (starred review)
“Erdrich’s gifts are many, and she has given readers another tale full of rich details of 1850’s Ojibwe life, complicated supporting characters, and all the joys and challenges of a girl becoming a woman.” — Horn Book (starred review)
PRAISE FOR THE BIRCHBARK HOUSE: “[A] lyrical narrative. Readers will want to follow this family for many seasons to come.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“The Birchbark House establishes its own ground, in the vicinity of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books.” — New York Times Book Review
“Why has no one written this story before?” — ALA Booklist (boxed review)
“Erdrich’s captivating tale of four seasons portrays a deep appreciation of our environment, our history, and our Native American sisters and brothers.” — School Library Journal
2016-04-13
In this fifth book of the Birchbark House series, Omakayas, her twin sons, Makoons and Chickadee, and their extended family adjust to life on the Great Plains following their 1866 migration from the Minnesota woods to Dakota Territory."Connected to each other by invisible strings of life," Makoons and Chickadee quickly discover life on the Plains belongs "to the buffalo" and "hunters of the buffalo." Eager to join the male hunters, the twins learn to hunt with bow and arrow while riding ponies. Disappointed to be excluded from the first hunt, they find consolation driving an ox cart to transport hides and witness the hunt. After adopting an orphan buffalo calf, the boys use their knowledge of buffalo language to play a pivotal part in another buffalo hunt. But this moment does not last. Aware the buffalo are fleeing westward to escape invading white settlers, the family relocates further west to a wooded place where they build a cabin and suffer loss, leaving readers wondering what the future holds. Laced with Ojibwe words (explicated in backmatter), Erdrich's simple text and delicate pencil illustrations provide a detailed, honest portrait of Plains life through the antics and experiences of two Ojibwe boys.A warm and welcome addition to the unfolding saga of a 19th-century Ojibwe family. (map, author's note) (Historical fiction. 8-12)
