The importance of oral tradition is unfathomable. However, in today’s fast paced society the
traditions of storytelling are taking back seat to all else. It is ironic that the world of reading dedicates
so much time and effort to “multicultural” literature but rarely is a well-rounded
multicultural book written. In the fifth
edition of Children’s Literature, Briefly
the authors attempt to help
determine what a will written multicultural children’s book should contain, they
say these books need to be cultural authentic and free of stereo types. Mean while other groups tend to believe that a
person outside of that culture cannot write an authentic book.
The Magic Hummingbird
A Hopi Folktale
Three artists
worked on this book:
Collection and
translation by Ekkehart Malotki
Narrated by
Michael Lomatuway’ma
Illustrated by
Michael Lacapa
In the very
begin of this book the authors go into great detail about how pain stacking and
hard it was to find a way to publish a story that was so close to the original
oral story. There was a great deal of
politics that had to be overcome.
The Story
****This will be
a very brief overview of a wonderful story.
There was a
great people who lived in a Hopi village.
This people had ran out of food.
The people of the village decided to leave in search of food. A couple decided it best to leave there two
children in the village as the foraged for food.
They brother and
sister rummaged around the village looking for food and could not find
nothing. The boy found a stalk of a
sunflower and began to play with the marrow inside. He fashioned a small hummingbird for his
sister to play with.
The Hummingbird comes
to life while the sister is playing with the handmade toy. It is because of the bird that the brother
and sisters life is spared from starvation.
The
illustrations are extremely culturally centered, they represent the Native American
communities history with art.
This is a
wonderful and inspiring read. In order
to understand the true cultural effect of The
Magic Hummingbird you must read it.
In the classroom
I would use this
in a class to teach about the importance of passing on family history.
You can also teach how in many cultures there
is a specific meaning for different symbols.
I loved that you chose this book to show for a multicultural book. It really ties into the importance of teaching kids about other cultures in the owrld. I would definitely use the cover page to have students infer and identify the culture through the artwork. This also goes back to the comment our classmate stated about how ethinicity does not equal authenticity,. I think it is great to explain to studetns the history behind creating this book and why it involved having three authors. This could definitely extend a discussion on multicultural literature.
ReplyDeleteI think that this book is a great book for all ages to learn about other cultures. It is a children's book, and I love that it was illustrated by a Hopi man and so all the drawings are very authentic, which in a book with such a rich history is important.
ReplyDeleteI think the way you designed your blog this time was really cool, I really like the introduction and then the story, and the link to teaching through folktales will be very useful to those of us wanting to use folktales in the classroom.
I loved the pictures in this book! They showed such a rich culture through the colorful and unique pictures. I think that this a great children's literature book, but the reading material was a bit intense and could be used for the older kids or advanced placement kids. It would also be a great conversation starter about the students' own different cultures.
ReplyDeleteThis was such a great book talk, and I really enjoyed learning about this story. I could see how it would need to be used sensitively, and how it would be hard to publish. It had some touchy subject matter, but was still and interesting story.
ReplyDelete