4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Back and Forth Structure Reveals More Than Straight Narration, December 27, 2006
This review is from: Where the Great Hawk Flies (Hardcover)
Considering the depiction of Native Americans in books, so much has changed since I was the age of our twelve-year-old daughter, Lillian.
In several new books for young readers, the narrative vantage point has been very decisively shifted to place native characters in the point-of-view position, in the center of events instead of serving as "colorful" parts of the scenery. I've recently read aloud to our daughter Lillian two new young adult novels with Native American themes, Louise Erdrich's The Game of Silence (HarperCollins, 2005) and Liza Ketchum's Where the Great Hawk Flies (Clarion/Houghton-Mifflin, 2005).
Liza Ketchum, author of Where the Great Hawk Flies, also traces her ancestry to Native American forebears. Ketchum, who has written fourteen books for young readers, is the great-great-great-great-great granddaughter of the Pequot midwife Margery Daigo (or Dogerill) and her husband, Joseph Griswold, who lived near Randolph, Vermont, during the eighteenth century. Ketchum's novel takes place in a small (and quite fragile) Connecticut River-valley community still in upheaval as a result of a so-called Indian Raid in 1780, when British soldiers and Caughnawaga warriors from Quebec burned houses and crops in Royalton, Vermont, and killed or captured a number of villagers.
Ketchum's new novel begins in 1782, two years after that raid, when the War of Independence has ended and Vermont is still a separate republic.
Alternating chapters between point-of-view characters -- Daniel, son of a white father and Pequot mother, and a white boy, Hiram -- Ketchum's novel enacts a confrontation between cultures, demonstrating the wariness and even outright racist hostility between Euro-American and native townsfolk on the New England frontier.
This back and forth structure is exceedingly successful in dramatizing a basic truth: different people can see and feel the same events in entirely different ways. My twelve-year-old reading companion noticed that early on we both winced when we came to a Hiram chapter, as his hatred of his "dirty Injun" Daniel is so vehement, a result of terrible fear. Lillian said that although at first she really disliked Hiram and found what he said about the Pequots to be lies, later she was especially happy because she'd seen his thinking change from the inside. The book concludes with a hard-earned reconciliation, more visceral and powerful because shown from more than one vantage point.
Like Erdrich, Ketchum draws upon her native characters' traditional language, which as she acknowledges in a note the 1638 Treaty of Hartford (Connecticut) made illegal for Pequots to speak. While no longer used as widely today as Erdrich's Ojibwe, the miraculous survival of ancient Pequot at all is a testament to the importance of stories in carrying languages through time and through social and cultural upheaval.
Lillian pointed out that both books combine "small stories" about everyday childhood incidents, like learning to make a canoe or build a wigwam, or bickering between siblings and neighbor kids, with the "big stories" of war, eviction from homelands, and deadly epidemics. She wondered if a novel for adults would include those small stories, and if it did, whether the everyday parts would relate to kids.
We enjoyed our conversations about why these are superb books for her at this time in her life.
I must admit that I don't understand how young adult books are categorized in terms of age ranges, as these two novels are suggested for middle school readers, whereas they seem in no way stylistically or thematically too "juvenile" for high schoolers. Indeed I'd readily use either novel with my community college students.
Ketchum's book offers fresh, vivid, engaging instruction in the hard lessons of history, teaching via the tactile pleasures of narrative instead of by lecturing or hectoring. In conveying the lives of children, Ketchum gives us new ways of understanding our origins in the past and the huge challenges that face us now as a nation of parts, rarely a unanimous whole.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
5.0 out of 5 stars
Where The Great Hawk Flies, November 19, 2008
This review is from: Where the Great Hawk Flies (Hardcover)
Where The Great Hawk Flies is a very good book to me. It took place in Griswold, Vermont in 1782, after the Revolutionary War. It is about two kids named Daniel Tucker and Hiram Coombs. Daniel is turning thirteen and Hiram is eleven years old. Daniel Tucker is part Pequot Indian and part white. Hiram is all white and doesn't like indians. When they first meet they were really mean to each other. Hiram started calling Daniel a dirty injun, and Daniel started calling Hiram buffle brained. This book is told by each other's point of view. The two families have a difficult time with each other in the beginning of this book, but towards the end, they start to care about each other and help each other out.
I thought this book was telling the reader that you don't always judge someone by their race. For example, Hiram thought that Daniel was going to be a lousy person, but then he started to become friends with the indian boy. In this book, Daniel is stuck between two lives. He has to make a lot of decisions through out the book. An example of Daniel having to make a decision on whether he should listen to his Grandfather or should he listen to his father about obeying his Grandfather. Daniel also has thoughts about the Revolutionary War, or in the book it says, "The Raid".
Hiram and his family moved in, and was not happy with the turnout. The mother of Hiram, Hannah Coombs, did not like their house. They thought it was a big dump. He also, has tons of bad memories from the raid. In the book it said that Hiram was saved by a red-tailed hawk from the raid. The hawk turns out to be a big part in this book. At first, I thought Hiram was really mean to Daniel and his family. Hiram isn't very educated as much as Daniel is. One exciting part in Hiram's chapter, is when his mother is having a baby. I thought Hiram's reaction was going to be very happy, but to my surprise, Hiram was very worried. I wouldn't blame him because his mother was having a hard time breathing and that could have led to death. Hiram didn't see his mother untill way past his mother giving birth. I won't tell you what happened to the baby or the mother because that would just wrek the whole chapter.
So that was my review on the book Where The Great Hawk Flies. My recommendation is that you read this book. It was so AWESOME! -KJHR
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4.0 out of 5 stars
Where The Great Hawk Flies, November 19, 2008
This review is from: Where the Great Hawk Flies (Hardcover)
Intro
Where The Great Hawk Flies is a great book about basically two kids named Hiram and Daniel. Hiram is full white, but Daniel is half white and half Pequot
this book Hiram has a hard time dealing with his neighbor Daniel because of Hiram's mother and Uncle's prejudice beliefs. However, near the end of the book they find themselves coming together after they find out that both of them have a lot of similarities.
Summary
Now I will tell about some of the major points in the book.
On Daniel's thirteenth birth day he is walking in the woods when hiram jumps out and scares Daniel.
This is the first time they ever have met. When they see each other Hiram calls Daniel a dirty injun and Daniel calls him buffle brained. Now you can tell that they had a hard time getting along with each other.
Later, around the middle of the book Daniel and Hiram figure out that they were both hiding from the Indians in the Revolutionary war or as called in the book, the raid. Earlier Hiram had thought that Daniel and his family were bad because he thought that they were with the indians that tried to kidnap Hiram and kidnapped his uncle.
They really find themselves coming together when tradegies in both families happen. First Mrs. Coombs, hiram's mother is going to have a baby. At first it seems like a normal birth, but soon she finds herself in bad condition. Another surprise, she's having twins! After the whole process They are all okay. One day later Daniel's grandfather dies and and it sends Daniel's mother into depression. This brings them together because they both feel bad for each other.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
