Birchbark House, The

The second of four children in a Ojibwa family on the shores of Lake Superior, eight-year-old Omakayas--Little Frog--despises her obnoxious little brother, idolizes her older sister, and adores the new baby. As the family progresses from their birchbark-clad shoreline summer wigwam to their winter village cabin, camping with cousins to make sugar and gather rice along the way, Erdrich primarily follows the protagonist’s struggles and adventures, both internal and external. The text, which is liberally peppered with Ojibwa words and phrases even going so far as to reintroduce the familiar moccasins as makazins, thoughtfully includes a glossary with pronunciation guide after the last chapter as well as a map of the family’s travels printed on the endpages. The daily work of carving a living from the land is central to the action, including anecdotal descriptions of the tasks necessary to keep Omakayas’ family and clan going such as hide tanning, icefishing, maize farming, and moccasin making. Sharing the spotlight are the ritualized animist practices of Ojibwa spirituality, which provides the primary venue for the hero’s growth as her near-tragic encounter with a bear grows over the course of the year into a connection with her spirit guide. Ever-present at the edges, and often taking the story in a new direction, is the presence of Anglo settlers in the form of missionaries, traders, and bearers of devastating disease.

The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich; illus. by the author
Intermediate
Hyperion
244 pp.
Published 1999
ISBN 078682241-4
$16.25

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