The Lost Children: The Boys Who Were Neglected [Paperback]

Paul Goble (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

Based on Blackfoot Indian myth, this tale movingly reminds readers that all children are sacred. Six orphaned brothers, neglected by their people and taunted by their peers, abandon the Earth for the Above World where they become the constellation known as the Pleiades. Full color.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this retelling of a Blackfoot Indian legend, six neglected orphans become stars. "Goble tells the myth with earnest simplicity, a gentle cadence to his words imbuing the text with particular significance. His illustrations-dazzling in color, crisp and clean in design-prove typically arresting," said PW. All ages.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-5-- A sacred tale of the Blackfoot, The Lost Children tells of six orphaned brothers, neglected by their people, given grudging charity, taunted and scorned by other children. They are befriended only by the camp dogs. At last the boys, tired of the unkindness around them, go to the Above World, where they become the stars we call the Pleiades. Sun Man punishes the neglectful people with a drought, but he listens to the dogs' plea that it end when the animals, too, suffer. (The dogs become the small stars clustered around the Pleiades.) The retelling is spare and direct, the more affecting for its complete lack of sentimentality. There is an extensive list of sources and notes on both the story and on tipi-painting. These notes help readers to understand Blackfoot artistry and values, and add meaning to Goble's depiction. Unchanging in the bright, bold geometry of his instantly recognizable style, Goble's work here, as in the past, is notable both for its graphic design and for the narrative it adorns. --Patricia Dooley, University of Washington, Seattle
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Paperback: 40 pages
• Publisher: Aladdin (June 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689819994
• ISBN-13: 978-0689819995
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.7 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #543,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paul Goble is an award winning author and illustrator of children's books. He has won both the Caldecott Medal and The Library of Congress' Children's Book of the Year Award. To date, Mr. Goble has illustrated over 30 books. He has given his entire collection of original illustrations to the South Dakota Art Museum in Brookings, South Dakota.

Goble, a native of England, studied at the Central School of Art in London. He has lived in the United States since 1977 and became a citizen in 1984. Goble's life-long fascination with Native Americans of the plains began during his childhood when he became intrigued with their spirituality and culture. His illustrations accurately depict Native American clothing, customs and surroundings in brilliant color and detail. Goble researches ancient stories and retells them for his young audiences in a manner sympathetic to Native American ways. Goble lives with his wife in Rapid City, SD.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Blackfoot story on the dangers of neglecting children, May 31, 2004

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Lost Children: The Boys Who Were Neglected (Turtleback)

"The Lost Children: The Boys Who Were Neglected" is a sacred Blackfoot Indian myth retold and illustrated by Paul Goble that serves as a timeless reminder about the dangers of neglecting children. It is, we are told, "a story about the world which is above our world," that was told in the dark in the old days. The premise is that children are given to us by the Great Spirit as God's greatest gift, but sometimes we forget this important point and are not kind to them, which is what happened when the people did not look after six little children.

These were six brothers who had been orphaned. They slept and ate in different places each day and their only clothes were those that people had discarded. Their only friends were the camp dogs. But the other children threw stones as them and chased them away (Goble paints the other children and the adults of the camp as silhouettes of color the first time we see them; they do not get to be represented as being human because their actions make them less than that). The six brothers were so sad at their treatment that they did not wish to be people any longer and debated what they should be instead: flowers, stones, waters, or tress. But in the end they decide to be stars and are welcomed into the Sun Man's tipi.

This story explains the origin of the Pleiades stars, which are called the Bunched Stars by the Blackfoot. In his Author's Note Goble explains that many of the North American peoples had a similar story about how the Pleiades were once children who went to the Sky World because people did not like looking at them. As always Goble's paintings are a marvelous evocation of the artwork down by the Plains tribes in the 19th century. All of the tipis (niitoyis) illustrated in "The Lost Children" are from the Blackfoot nation, copied from photographs Goble had taken over twenty years in Montana and Alberta. The book ends with a note about the tipis in which Goble explains the symbolism of what we see on them. Goble might be best known for his humorous stories about Iktomi the trickster, but these more serious myths from the Plains Indians are even better.