Customer Reviews

If You Lived With The Iroquois

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am fascinated by the cultures of the Iroquois, the Algonquins, and the other nations of New York State. Therefore, I can say with a reasonable amount of certainty that any well-read adult will note the many historical inaccuracies in this book. It paints a too-rosy picture of Iroquois life; indeed, they seem like the perfect people with a civilization far outstripping ours in their peacable ways. There are subtly misleading statements regarding religious toleration, women in government, and many other politicaly correct topics. And there was no mention of the continual wars waged by the Iroquois league upon all of the neighboring tribes - a huge omission.

I will point out only one particular error: on page 70, the book states: "There was no such thing as slavery." Unfortunately, the Iroquois were just as human as Europeans and the rest of mankind, and were well known middlemen in the slave trade between their eastern and western neighbors.

I have a great respect for the Iroquois and the other peoples that lived here before us. I don't think we are treating them respectfully by whitewashing their very humanity. Nor do I think we are treating our children respectfully by omitting certain unpleasant facts and prettying up others.

I gave this book more than one star because it did contain some useful information about food, clothing, and ceremonies.

Ellen Levine and illustrator Shelly Hehenberger have created a delightful book that takes the young reader into a historical look at life as an Iroquois Indian. The eighty page book is divided into subtitles which concisely tell the story of daily living for the early Iroquois people. As the book is written in second person, the reader is drawn into the story and feels as if he or she is experiencing tribal life. The soft muted colors of the illustrations give the book a feeling of serenity while the writing covers an extraordinary amount of information for young readers.

This is a great book for middle school aged children. I used it to study the Iroquois in my social studies classes. It is very informative without overwhelming younger children with too much information. The book was fun to read, and held the interest of my students. Also, I made my own worksheets/tests by dividing the book into different sections. The students all enjoyed this unit on the Iroquois and learned a great deal about the Native Americans.

I really liked this book. I'm an adult, and even though I know this is a kid's book, I bought it to get a quick introduction to the Iroquois.

This book has 80 pages with a lot of content on each page, and some good illustrations. It's about the Iroquois people before the European settlers came over, which includes the tribes of Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca.

If You Lived with the Iroquois has a question and answer format, that really brought me right in the middle of the culture of the Iroquois. Here are some of the questions:
*Did everyone practice the same religion?
*Would you eat meals with your family?
*What kind of work would people do?

I liked how the book paints the Iroquois as a very important people, a people that a lot of the US culture is based on. The book implies that the US got it's concepts of freedom of religion and having elected officials from the Iroquois. I also like how the Iroquois are described as a lot more clean than European settlers, since they bathed every day. I think it would be cool to travel back in time sometime, and biggest detriment of going back in time would be how everyone would smell because people of the past generally had bad hygiene. After reading this book, if I ever get a time machine, I'm going back to see the nice-smelling Iroquois.

Pros:
+Brightly colored pages and pictures
+Interesting question and answer format
+Lots of content for a short, small, illustrated book
+I learned a lot of information in a short period of time

Cons:
-Might be too simplistic, but it is a kid's book

This book had lots of good information in it about the Iroquois traditions. It is a picture book filled with information about their houses, the clothing they wore, the traditions they kept, the food they ate, and some of their history. I would recommend this book to kids who are interested in Native Americans.

The book is just as described and quite informative for young readers. I am very satisfied with this purchase.