Citation: Erdrich,
L. (1999). The Birchbark House. New York: HyperionBooks for Children.
Lexile Score: 970L
Summary:
This story is about a young girl and how she deals
with the average life of an Ojibwa Indian. The girl must deal with moving from
house to house for almost every season. She faces starvation and disease that
nearly destroys her family in the winter and a near death experience from a
bear in the summer.
Evaluation:
This book is
of high quality literature. The
storyline is easy to follow and shows the importance of all characters. It also
goes in depth about the importance of every job that is completed within the
story, and how it is very relevant to what Indians really did experience during
these times.
The author took a true time that was very tragic for
many Indians and explained it with such detail and enculturation that even
younger students can understand and feel what these people really went through.
The readers of the book are getting a decide idea of life was really like, with
issues from disease to pending threats from white people, without all the
gruesome imagery.
Within the book there were little images that I
thought were a nice touch. Even though the author described everything with
such detail that you could imagine it, it was still nice to have a visual of
what the author is describing. Many younger kids like having pictures in
chapter books, even if the visual are tiny and scarce. It helps them better
understand the text and in this case
Literary Elements:
Setting: La Pointe
Characters: Indians of
Ojibwa tribe and animals.
Theme: Family and traditions
Mini Lesson:
For this book I would have students research and
learn more about the Ojibwa tribe during this time. I would have students
create power points and posters about them. I would do this activity before the
students read the book so they have background knowledge and understanding of
what is going on.
Age: 8+
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