Northwoods Cradle Song: From a Menominee Lullaby [Hardcover]

Douglas Wood (Author), Lisa Desimini (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1996

A poetic adaptation of a Menominee lullaby follows a mother's bedtime song to her little warrior, which describes the whisper of the night winds, the call of the whippoorwill, the silken wings of moths, and other natural images.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The northwoods of turn-of-the-century Wisconsin form the soul-nourishing setting of a Native American lullaby, lyrically rendered by the author of Old Turtle. Working in oils, Desimini (The Great Peace March) paints with a tranquil, velvety softness. Her abstract, purple-black scenes of a Menominee mother and infant, illuminated only by firelight and the vanishing sun, mirror the peace and silence of nighttime in the woods. The lullaby itself whispers that all of nature is going to sleep: "Ne pa Ko, my sleepy head,/ Tiger lily's gone to bed/ Where the heron, tall and wise,/ Watches for the moon to rise./ ... Sleep, little warrior, sleep." Basing his work on published translations, Wood has crafted an image-rich, eminently musical lullaby. Its simple charm should hook a broad range of readers. Ages 6mos.-5yrs.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-K?In this adaptation of a Menominee Indian song, creatures gradually fall asleep around a mother and her child as the nocturnal world awakens. A few Algonquin words, transliterated, remain in Wood's rhyming English translation. Desimini's note indicates that the lifestyle portrayed is that of the Menominee people in their native Wisconsin at the turn of the century. The deep blues of the north dominate the unframed, oil-paint illustrations, which cover the pages with dark, opaque hues. The style is flat and primitive. The illustrator notes that she has simplified the dress of mother and child in order to generalize it, and in that generalization lies the problem. There is nothing particularly distinctive here, nor particularly Wisconsin. The setting, the sound of the poetry, and look of the art might just as easily be Hiawatha as anything else. Those who seek to celebrate Native American culture may want this bedtime book, but the uniqueness of the Menominee seems muted.?Ruth K. MacDonald, Bay Path College, Longmeadow, MA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing (April 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689805039
• ISBN-13: 978-0689805035
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,698,647 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Bedtime Book, March 28, 2000

By 

Susan Lee (Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Northwoods Cradle Song: From a Menominee Lullaby (Paperback)

In Northwoods Cradle Song, a person can find three things that make a book especially appealing to me: a love and respect for nature, poetic text, and beautiful artwork. Everything works well here to create a book that is a joy to read to the children who matter in our lives.