Native American Heritage Month

November is Native American Heritage Month , and although I believe Native American literature belongs in every month of the year, an opportunity to highlight it is always welcome.

This is not a comprehensive list, but rather some of the most often cited middle-grade historical fiction with Native American themes and characters.

I must begin with Joseph Bruchac, whose contribution to Native American children's literature is beyond measure. Some favorite historical fiction are: Children of the Long House, Hidden Roots (for upper middle-grade as the subject is genocide), and my personal favorite Code Talkers (A WWII story, which is sometimes listed as YA, but I think is appropriate for for upper middle-grade).

Louise Erdrich is a prolific author in multiple genres and forms. Her Birchbark series has become a staple of Native American historical fiction.

"[In this] story of a young Ojibwa girl, Omakayas, living on an island in Lake Superior around 1847, Louise Erdrich is reversing the narrative perspective used in most children's stories about nineteenth-century Native Americans. Instead of looking out at 'them' as dangers or curiosities, Erdrich, drawing on her family's history, wants to tell about 'us', from the inside. The Birchbark House establishes its own ground, in the vicinity of Laura Ingalls Wilder's 'Little House' books." --The New York Times Book Review

How I Became a Ghost, by Tim Tingle is on most lists for 

middle grade Native American historical fiction: "A Choctaw boy tells the story of his tribe's removal from its Mississippi homeland, and how its exodus to the American West led him to become a ghost --one able to help those left behind." Amazon Review. It is followed by Book 2, When a Ghost Talks, Listen.

Michael Dorris's  Morning Girl  is "a tale based on an entry in the diary of Christopher Columbus that tells of a native family living in a vibrant community striving to coexist with the natural world." Amazon. Sees Behind Trees is about a "Native American boy with a special gift to 'see' beyond his poor eyesight journeys with an old warrior to a land of mystery and beauty." Amazon. And Guests is a favorite Thanksgiving story with a wonderful twist of perspective. Dorris is an award winning author for children and adults.

You can find these and many more on lists at these websites:

https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/p/best-books.html

https://www.whatdowedoallday.com/native-american-middle-grade-books/
http://homeschoollifemag.com/blog/2017/11/20/great-books-for-studying-native-american-history-middle-school
https://www.nativerealities.com/collections
http://www.colorincolorado.org/booklist/historical-fiction-american-indian-heritage-grades-6-12
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lists/teaching-content/native-american-historical-fiction-book-list/
https://www.pragmaticmom.com/2010/06/top-10-native-american-childrens-books-ages-2-16/

NEW BOOK ON THE HORIZON - by Mary Louise Sanchez

There are so many new middle grade historical fiction novels being published. It just so happens that my book, The Wind Called My Name will be one of them on the horizon. Thank you to Jennifer Bohnhoff for giving her time slot on this blog to promote my book!

I never thought about it until I wrote this post, but the beautiful book cover, illustrated by the Pura Belpre award illustrator Raul Colon, shows my protagonist, Margarita, looking towards the horizon and what might lie ahead of her.

My book's birth is scheduled for October 30, 2018 after we had false labor pains on September 18 and October 16 because of a paper shortage. 

As a writer of historical fiction, I love the research portion of writing a book because you learn so many interesting things. Of course not all the research ends up on the final pages. I thought you might enjoy a peek into my research that did end up on the page.

Near the beginning of the book, the Sandoval family is in the eldest brother's car named Collette (named for movie star Collette Coburn) as they leave their ancestral New Mexico home and head to Wyoming to join Papa. It's 1934 and he and Alberto have been fortunate to find work on the Union Pacific railroad. They've been working for a year now, separated from the family. 

p. 8  " We continued north into Colorado, passing Trinidad, Pueblo, Colorado Springs, and Denver. the towns' names changed from Spanish to English. Sometimes we talked and sometimes we slept or sang. Alberto tried to teach us a song called "I've Been Working on the Railroad," and he sang one called "Beyond the Blue Horizon," which he said he heard on the radio." 

I remember listening to this song in my youth. Perhaps I heard it on the Lawrence Welk Show. This television show certainly enlarged my musical history knowledge.

 In my research for songs from the 1930s, I discovered this tune was made popular by Jeanette MacDonald and would have most likely still be played on the radio in 1934. The song also became popular in recent times. I played the song for our granddaughter, Emily, and asked if she had heard it since I had recently heard a new arrangement of the song on YouTube. She hadn't heard the song, but I said I was going to put the song in the story in homage to her 2018 graduation from Horizon High School. My editor, Cheryl Klein, suggested I cut the reference, but I explained that Alberto might have tried to show how savvy he was with pop culture of the times and might have sung it to his family. The reference to the song stayed in the story! 

I hope you'll listen to this beautiful new arrangement of the song which I found on YouTube, and also pick up a copy of my book and read it. I'd love to read your comments about my book on Goodreads or Amazon. 

"Beyond the Blue Horizon"

Lest We Forget, by Elizabeth W.C. Junner. All photographs of the fields, Ruth E. Millan

courtesy R.E. Millan

 ‘On the breast of that huge Mississippi of falsehood called History, a foam bell more or less is no consequence’. Such is the Victorian poet, critic, and inspector of schools, Matthew Arnold’s opinion of history. British schoolboy lore is more pungent: ‘History is bunk’. Nevertheless, the grains of truth are always there somewhere, and diligent historians spare no pains in attempting to unearth them.

November 11^th 2018 marks the 100^th anniversary of the Armistice that brought the Great War to an end. The question of what triggered the First World War, ‘the War to End All Wars’, is still a matter of debate among historians. The assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, on 28^th June 1914 by Serbian terrorists is generally ascribed as being the last straw which provoked hostilities. Under the London Treaty of 1839, Britain was honour bound to protect neutral, recently independent Belgium. So when Germany, in direct violation of the treaty,  invaded Belgium in August, 1914, Britain declared war on 4^th August. The German Chancellor of the time, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, told the British Ambassador he could not believe the two countries would go to war ‘over a scrap of paper’. It is worth noting in her biography of  Princess Victoria, An Uncommon Woman, Hannah Pakula includes a photograph of the future Wilhelm ll ‘Kaiser Bill’ in Highland dress, on which he has scrawled ‘I bide my time.’ 

There are many fiction books on the Great War for Middle Graders. One is Ernest K. Gann’s In The Company of Eagles. It features the French pilot Paul Chamay and his quest to find and shoot down Kupper, the German pilot who had ruthlessly killed Raymonde, his lifelong friend, after crippling his plane. In the end, Chamay encounters Kupper in a  long drawn out dogfight between just the two of them. Kupper outwits Chamay, ending close on his tail – and does not fire. His guns have jammed. Now Kupper is at Chamay’s mercy. Poised to kill, Chamay recalls someone saying to take revenge leads to madness. Instead, he pulls alongside Kupper, looks him in the eye, salutes and flies off.  It’s somewhat difficult to read, but an interesting book telling the story from the French and German viewpoint.

Murder on the Ridge, by Ted Stenhouse, is the story of Will and his

Blackfoot Indian friend, Arthur. It is a tale of murder and treachery, a cover-up  of what really happened at Vimy Ridge to Wolfleg, the Blackfoot medico. Afterwards on their return to Canada, burning for justice for Wolfleg, the lads seek the help of Arthur's grandfather, a traditional Blackfoot medicine man. We follow their tortuous experiences in the sweat lodge, and how they finally come to a sort of peace. It's a book that probably would not see print today, both Arthur and Will having recourse to the whisky bottle, yet it is another viewpoint on the bloody slaughterhouse that was Vimy, told from the Indian side.

 

Charlie Wilcox’sWar is based on a Newfoundland lad’s experiences in the war. Newfoundland only joined Canada in 1949; as a British protectorate she sent an enormous number of her men to fight in the war, and in consequence suffered horrendous losses. The emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment was a caribou, and a great bronze caribou is the heart of the Newfoundland Memorial at Beaumont-Hamel in France. A grandchild has my copy of the book, but if memory serves me right Charlie survived the war, returns to complete his studies as a medical doctor at McGill University in Montréal, and marries his hometown sweetheart. Thousands of his compatriots lie in unknown graves, with this Memorial as a lasting tribute to their courage and determination.

Not Flanders Field, but McCrae's 'we are the Dead. Short days ago we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow. Loved and were loved, and now we lie...' is appropriate. 

Sign reminding visitors this is sacred ground, and requesting them to respect it as such.

Although Beaumont-Hamel is primarily a Canadian Memorial, there is also a Memorial and Cemetery for Scottish Regiments. The ground has been left untouched and visitors can walk through a trench. In this late summer of 2018 the grass is green and the ground dry, a sharp contrast to so much of the Great War when memories were mainly of cold, rain, and mud. Especially mud.

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It is a sobering experience, one hundred years later. All those crosses  and headstones, all those lives lost. I'm sure no-one can visit these battlefields without reflecting on the many hundreds who have no grave to mark where they lie. We should never forget the sacrifice.

My final choice of books is War Horse, by Michael Morpurgo. Told by Joey, a beautiful red bay, with a remarkable white cross on his forehead, this story is based on truth. Befriended by Albert, the farmer’s son, Joey was sold to the Army to pay off debts. Albert joined up to be with Joey but inevitably the two were separated. Joey was used to haul field ambulances; this book does not spare the reader from the senseless slaughter, the courage of the men and horses, the stupidity of their orders but it does so in a masterful way. It is fast paced, and easy to read. Joey ends up in German hands, and then in one of those little miracles he makes his way alone into no-man’s-land where he is found – simultaneously - by a German and a Welshman. The men chat for a few minutes about the futility of war, and agree to toss for Joey. The Welshman won, took Joey back to his regiment – and there also was Albert. The story proceeds with more ups and downs for Joey to a satisfying conclusion.

And here are my final photographs, a sculpture of a soldier comforting his wounded horse. My niece Ruth happened to visit this site at the same time as a group from London came to lay a wreath in memory of a London regiment and one man's grandfather who was killed 100 years to the day. They held a prayer service, a most moving and special moment.

'Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget - lest we forget!' Kipling. 

Get kids ready for #Halloween with #ghost stories that share #history!

Some children find it difficult to connect to history. How about trying a ghost story? Some ghost stories are also set in historical times, while others feature a modern child connecting to a ghost. While these books may or may not be strongly rooted in history, they can be a way to get kids interested in stories from the past.

For example, in my Haunted series, thirteen-year-old Jon and his eleven-year-old sister, Tania, are typical modern kids – except for the fact that Tania can communicate with ghosts. 

In The Ghost on the Stairs, the kids help investigate a hundred-year-old tragedy in Colorado silver mining country. The Riverboat Phantom puts them on the Mississippi River on an antique riverboat. For The Ghost Miner’s Treasure, Jon and Tania travel to the Superstition Mountains of Arizona, where the ghost of an old miner is still looking for his lost mine. 

In this series, the ghosts are being held in this world by something that happened in the past. In order to help free the ghosts, Jon and Tania must understand that past.

See also my post on Learning#History through Ghost Stories.

“Haunted is a fun read with some thrills and chills and has the added bonus of some genuine, compassionate personalities.” - School Library Journal

“I LOVED this book. My daughter who is 11 could not put this book down. She read it so quickly and is asking for more!”

“My 10 year old daughter HATES to read. These books kept her interested and wanting to read more. I downloaded all 4 in this series. THANK YOU!!”

“What I loved most of all, was the way my 4th grade daughter got sucked into the story. She's a reluctant reader so it was a joy to see her completely absorbed in a book; she immediately started the second book in the series when she finished, and can't wait for more.” – Amazon readers

Get all four books in the series from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or other retailers.

HAUNTED

Thirteen-year-old Jon and his eleven-year-old sister, Tania, are typical kids – except for the fact that Tania can communicate with ghosts. Their mom and stepdad are producers of a ghost-hunter reality television show, but they don’t know about Tania’s gift, and Tania wants to keep it that way.

Jon can't see ghosts and didn't believe in them, but things are getting too crazy for any other explanation. And if softhearted Tania wants to help the ghosts, Jon will have to protect her and try to keep them both out of trouble.

First the siblings have to find out what happened to keep each ghost trapped in this world. Then they need to help the ghosts move on—sometimes by letting them take over Tania’s body. All this while dealing with their overprotective mother, a stepfather who’d want to exploit Tania’s gift, and a changing assortment of human troublemakers.

Life gets interesting when your sister sees ghosts. And the TV show’s shooting season is just beginning....

Chris Eboch is the author of over 60 books for children, including nonfiction and fiction, early reader through teen. Her novels for ages nine and up include The Eyes of Pharaoh, a mystery in ancient Egypt; The Well of Sacrifice, a Mayan adventure; The Genie’s Gift, a middle eastern fantasy; and the Haunted series, about kids who travel with a ghost hunter TV show, which starts with The Ghost on the Stairs. Her writing craft books include You Can Write for Children: How to Write Great Stories, Articles, and Books for Kids and Teenagers, and Advanced Plotting.

Learn more at https://chriseboch.com/ or her Amazon page, or check out her writing tips at her Write Like a Pro! blog.