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[skygiants]

I did not know until just now, when I was looking it up on Amazon, that Louise Erdrich's The Birchbark House was the first in a series! Fail, self. Anyway, as you might guess from that, The Birchbark House stands on its own - it follows a year in the life of Omakayas, a seven-year-old Ojibwa girl living on Madeline Island in Lake Superior in 1847. The big event that you'll see hyped on the back cover plot summary is a winter smallpox epidemic, but though that is definitely big and dramatic, the book devotes just much more time to chronicling little details of daily life beforehand and dealing with the emotional fallout after. Amazon is helpful again in telling me that Louise Erdrich spent epic amounts of time talking to Ojibwa elders (Erdrich is also Ojibwa), reading letters from the time period, and just hanging out with her kids on Madeline Island to see how they reacted to things, and her research definitely shows in how believable and matter-of-fact everything is. It is also worth mentioning that the illustrations are adorable.

I might have called this a coming-of-age story if I didn't know it was the first in a series, but I think I'm kind of glad that I'm not going to. Omakayas definitely goes through a lot of growth over the course of the book, but I am pretty excited to get to see her grow more! I am also looking forward to reading more about her family; unsurprisingly, my favorite part is the relationship between Omakayas and her siblings: perfectionist older sister Angeline, SUPER ANNOYING little brother Pinch, and Neewo, the much-adored baby. I also loved Old Tallow, the tough-as-nails old bear hunter who has dumped three husbands and terrifies everyone but has a soft spot for Omakayas. Although the book is definitely meant for middle-grade readers, the writing does not have that annoying talking-down-and-over-simplifying quality that you get with some authors new to YA who are trying too hard, and the characters are completely 3-D. I will be reading the sequels (now that I know they exist) and I'm also curious about her adult novels; if anyone knows anything about them, I would appreciate thoughts!

Comments

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

I meant to answer this yesterday then work got in the way. I have to tell you that Louise Erdrich is one of my very favorite authors, although I haven't read her YA stuff. Her adult novels, though, are some of the richest, most heartfelt writing I've ever had the pleasure to read. She's one of those people who writes from the gut, and all that emotion comes through in stark and unexpected ways. Her "classic" is Love Medicine and it's one of my favorites (and a great place to start). Almost all of her books and characters are related and intertwined, from present-day to far in the past, but you can read them in any order and they still work. Her characters are memorable if not all entirely fantastic, and she writes with a bite of realism that's hard to equal. I've got a good selection of her novels if you ever read and want to discuss them!

[skygiants]

Oh awesome! I would love to talk about her books with you when I get to reading them (and yes, I am pretty sure that is going to be a 'when' and not an 'if', judging from The Birchbark House :D). Love Medicine will be going on my library pull list, I think!

Also, completely unrelated, but I was actually just thinking about you because I have a cold right now and I am therefore suffering under an overwhelming impulse to collapse in my chair and emit massive amounts of green slime. IF ONLY I COULD.

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

Howl says he's got you covered.

Feel better more quicker and all that good jazz.