Turtle Island: Tales of the Algonquian Nations

48 Hour Reading Challenge Book Number 2:

Turtle Island: Tales of the Algonquian Nations by Jane Louise Curry, illustrated by James Watts. Work related. -Ish. But a co-worker did lend it do me. Jane Louise Curry tells a good story, and the stories in this book are good ones. But, in my opinion, she adds a European-ness to her telling that I found disconcerting. This is not in reference to specific post contact details (such as cows and buttons and bells)--Curry herself notes that these were in versions of stories told by Native story tellers. I don't think I'm enough of an expert to say anything much with any confidence about what makes a story Indian vs European, but I've read lots of stories closer to their original tellers, and these seem to have moved quite far from there. I do not think Jane Louise Curry actually talked to any Indian story tellers. And I find it annoying when authors say that certain tribes "vanished" and then base their own stories on stories told by members of those tribes (the particular example from this book being the vanished Mohegan, aka Mohecan).

THE ILLUSTRATIONS ARE AWFUL! Cartoonish caricatures.

Minutes spent blogging: 10

145pp