YALSA's THE HUB interviews Tim Tingle

Over at YALSA's The Hub you'll find an interview with Choctaw writer, Tim Tingle about being part of Matt Dembicki's Trickster (a collection of Trickster stories). In the interview, Tim says:

Every tribe approaches their stories differently. My mentor, the Choctaw tribal storyteller Charley Jones says, “tell the stories”, but make sure the origin is acknowledged. The Choctaw tribe is very open, you don’t have to be Choctaw to tell the story, but you must respect the tribal origins. Matt Dembicki understood this, as well as the importance of the trickster tale.

See that? Tim said he's taught to "Make sure the origin is acknowledged" and "respect the tribal origins." Read the interview with Tim, and, take a look at an interview with Dembicki, too.  One thing I wish Dembicki had done (or the book designer) was to note the tribal origin for each story right up front on the first panel for each story rather than in the back of the book...

A comment after today's session at NMLA 2011

This morning I gave a talk at the New Mexico Librarian Association annual conference. I talked about looking critically at American Indians in books. At the end of my session, a participant handed me a note. As I walked into my hotel at the end of the day, I read the note.

Pretty awesome feedback, don't you think?

First look at Karen Healey's GUARDIAN OF THE DEAD

In December I got an ebook copy of Karen Healey's Guardian of the Dead. I found a lot that I didn't like as I read it, and little that I did like.

It is on my mind today because of a pre-conference workshop I'm giving on Wednesday in Albuquerque at the annual conference of the New Mexico Library Association. I'll be talking about inappropriate use of sacred Native stories. I've got examples of picture books, but not a novel, so I think I'll add Guardian of the Dead to my power point and worksheet set.

With that thought in mind, I was reading online reviews and came across one that hits on many of the same things I noted. The reviewer is Kari, and her review is on the goodreads site.