by Louise Erdrich

Hyperion Books for Children, 1999

Image from Birchbark Books

Omakayas is a seven-year-old Anishinabe girl who lives with her family on Moningwanaykaning, Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker, on Lake Superior.  She loves her family, especially her grandmother (or Nokomis) and baby brother Neewo.  In the spring, the family moves out of their log cabin to live in a house that Nokomis crafts out of birchbark.  This book details a full year with Omakayas and her family; their joys and trials, and their continual pursuit of food.  The story is about a very specific historical and cultural setting, one in which the dangers of starvation and sickness are very real, but it is also about a normal young girl who is jealous of her older sister and doesn’t always relish doing chores.  Omakayas is independent, and though she wants to help her family, she also blossoms in her own right during the year as she discovers her special connections and talents.  Inset stories, like Nanabozho and Muskrat Make an Earth, inform about Anishinabe culture.  Some of the story is quite funny, with much of the humor coming from the family’s pet crow, Andeg.  The characters are unique and interesting, and Erdrich’s illustrations help to round them out.  The writing is sometimes a bit muddled in style, and without the glossary it would often be impossible to understand the Ojibwe words.    

(This review was originally submitted to my Materials for Children class)