Metafiction and American Indians

Over on his blog, Phillip Nel uploaded a video about metafiction. He defines it (loosely) as fiction about fiction. He invited his readers to submit examples of children's books that may be categorized as metafiction.

For some time, I've toyed with the idea of making a video in which I talk about children's books. This morning I decided to do it. Below is my video. You'll see right away that its too dark, which makes it fuzzy. It is dark because too much light in front of me creates glare on my eyeglasses that, in effect, obscures my eyes. I'll try other locations and see if I can get the lighting just right. For now...



To reiterate in text what I said in the video...  Joseph Bruchac's The Heart of a Chief is a story in which the author (Bruchac) has created characters who talk about another story. In this case, Chris, the middle-school boy who is the main character, talks about a highly problematic---yet widely acclaimed---work of historical fiction called The Sign of the Beaver.

Look over to the right side of this page and scroll down to the bottom. See the section called "Labels"? In that section you'll find "Sign of the Beaver." Click on it and you'll see several posts about the book.

There are other examples of metafiction. In his novel, Indian Killer, Sherman Alexie created Marie, a character who challenges her professor for using The Education of Little Tree in a course about American Indian Literature.  Indian Killer is not a book meant for children. Some young adults would be fine with the content; others would not.

Another good example is Thomas King's A Coyote Columbus Story. The fiction King pokes at? That one that goes "In 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered America..."

Margaret Manuel's I SEE ME

There's a handful of terrific board books that I recommend, and I'm adding this one to that list...

I See Me by Margaret Manuel is one of those books that can be personalized by its owner.

For example, the text on the first page is "I see me AWAKE."  Beneath that sentence is a blank line for me to write the Tewa word for awake. What language will you use on your copy?

The child shown on the cover is on each page. Some pages are about the things all babies do (smile, cry) and some are things specific to Native cultures. The cover page, for example, shows the baby with a drum. See the drumstick? (Note to authors and illustrations...  Native peoples in the US and Canada use drumsticks rather than hands to drum.)

Published by Theytus Books, I See Me was an Honourable Mention at the New York Book Festival in 2010.  Available from Theytus is a downloadable file of the Okanagan words for the ones in the book, and Theytus plans to add words from other First Nations languages, too.

If you want to know more about the Okanagan people, visit their website. When you click on the website for the Okanagan Nation Alliance, pause a moment and listen to the "The Okanagan Song" by Trish and Bruce Manuel before clicking through to the rest of the site.

Located in Canada, Theytus was established in 1980. It was the first publishing house in Canada owned and operated by Indigenous people.

PETER PAN in China

Troubling info...

"[B]rowsing at Chinese bookstores reveals that the children's book sections mostly contains books translated from the Western popular folk tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood, Peter Pan, and Snow White."

That's from "The Cultural Significance of Reading Instruction in China." Written by Yang Hu, the article is in The Reading Teacher, Volume 57, No. 7 (April 2004). I found it as I started looking for information about the Chinese National Curriculum.

I was looking for info on the Chinese National Curriculum because a former student was home in China this summer and brought me a copy of Little House on the Prairie. I'll scan the cover and some pages from the book later today. Printed across the top front of the cover is a note that says the book is part of the Chinese National Curriculum. I'd like to know more about that curriculum, and how Little House on the Prairie ended up on it.