Navajo: Visions and Voices Across the Mesa [Library Binding]

Shonto Begay (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 11 and up

A renowned Navajo artist and writer combines his paintings and poetic voice to provide insight into the lives and souls of his people, exploring creation stories, childhood memories, tribal rituals, and the profound effects of white people on Navajo culture.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With these heartfelt paintings, poems and memoirs, the noted Navajo artist fulfills his stated goal of taking the reader "into the corners of my world, the Navajo world." Similar in conception to George Littlechild's This Land Is My Land, this book places more emphasis on the traditional and spiritual, its contemporary setting notwithstanding. The sacred intertwines with the everyday; topics here range from storytelling, a solar eclipse and a healing ritual to riding in a truck and attending a tribal fair. Begay also explores the "constant struggle for balance" between his two worlds, as in "Storm Pattern," where he recalls his mother gently refusing to introduce images he saw in magazines into her rug weaving, images he now recognizes as corporate logos. Some of the paintings are dappled watercolors like those in Ma'ii and Cousin Horned Toad, others acrylics with thick, dynamic brushstrokes. Whatever the style, each reveals an indimate knowledge of a people in harmony with the land. Ages 9-up.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6 Up?Navajo philosophy and an artist's personal experience infuse this collection of paintings and (mostly free) verse. Begay's subjects vary from the sublime (creation, prayer, death, healing) to the mundane (riding in a truck, splashing in the mud after rain). Coyote (Ma'ii) plays a recurrent and significant role here, but Begay's impulse is to note and celebrate, rather than explain, important aspects of his culture. There are lessons to be learned, both cultural and universal, but obliquely. He does not blame the contemporary Anglo world for anything, but it intrudes, in ways often uncomprehending or disharmonious, and must be reckoned with. He chooses, nevertheless, to end his book in a season of hope with a poem called "Early Spring." The two central themes here, beauty and mystery, find natural expression in 20 acrylic paintings. Their stippled surfaces recall pointillist or Impressionist style, but the artist's palette rests on colors rooted to his people: the vermillion of desert earth and the blues of sky, flower, and turquoise. His figures are dignified but not idealized. Powerful and appealing in both word and image, this reflective book should find a wide audience of sympathetic readers.?Patricia (Dooley) Lothrop Green, St. George's School, Newport, RI
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 11 and up
  
• Library Binding: 48 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks (March 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0590461532
• ISBN-13: 978-0590461535
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 9.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,723,944 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is truly a view of the world of the Navajo., May 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Navajo: Visions and Voices Across the Mesa (Library Binding)

This is an absolutely fantastic book. The artwork is dynamic. Shonto is a true model for Navajo students in his writing and art. His work is a realistic view of the Navajo world. This is a must experience book.