The Birchbark House
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A fresh new look for this National Book Award finalist by Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Louise Erdrich! This is the first installment in an essential nine-book series chronicling one hundred years in the life of one Ojibwe family and includes charming interior black-and-white artwork done by the author.
She was named Omakakiins, or Little Frog, because her first step was a hop.
Omakakiins and her family live on an island in Lake Superior. Though there are growing numbers of white people encroaching on their land, life continues much as it always has.
But the satisfying rhythms of their life are shattered when a visitor comes to their lodge one winter night, bringing with him an invisible enemy that will change things forever—but that will eventually lead Omakakiins to discover her calling.
By turns moving and humorous, this novel is a breathtaking tour de force by a gifted writer.
The beloved and celebrated Birchbark House series by Louise Erdrich includes The Birchbark House, The Game of Silence, The Porcupine Year, Chickadee, and Makoons, with more titles to come.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Erdrich's crisply envisioned novel, which chronicles a year in the life of an Ojibwa Indian girl and her family during the mid-1800s, loses a bit of its verve in this slightly bumpy audio adaptation. Seven-year-old Omakayas is the heart of the story. Brave, spirited and generally kind, she offers her version of the eventsDfrom the mundane to the devastatingDon Lake Superior's Madeline Island. As white people intrude upon Ojibwa territory, disease and death also enter Omakayas's world and change it forever. Erdrich has said this book was inspired by her own family tree, and a knowing attention to detail is evident throughout. Universal themes and situations are woven together with historical facts to create a story as enlightening as it is entertaining, introducing Ojibwa words and customs as well as conveying the horror that came with an outbreak of smallpox. Littrell gamely tries to capture the emotions at play here, but her reading rhythm is sometimes uneven and never really in sync with the ebb and flow of Omakayas's account. And though Littrell occasionally affects a tone that borders on precious, her voice is warm and clear, and young listeners will find it inviting. Ages 9-up.
