Finding Bruchac's BUFFALO SONG at Reading is Fundamental's office

Update on Sep 30 2023: I (Debbie Reese) no longer recommend Bruchac's work. For details see Is Joseph Bruchac truly Abenaki?

In July I was in Washington DC to visit my daughter. Among the many things I did while there was visit the Reading is Fundamental office. As I waited in their reception area, I noted the books on their coffee table. Among them was Joseph Bruchac's excellent Buffalo Song:

Seeing it did two things:

First, it isn't often that a great book by a Native author greets me as I sit in a waiting room. My heart soared.

Second, its presence on that table is evidence that the people at Reading is Fundamental are committed to providing recipients of their books with ones that accurately portray Native people. Books that don't stereotype or romanticize who we are, and who we were...  They're important! Not just to Native readers, but non-Native ones, too!

In 2008, I posted Beverly Slapin's review of Buffalo Song.

Bruchac's book is superior to Jean Craighead George's The Buffalo Are Back. My review of her book is here: Jean Craighead George's THE BUFFALO ARE BACK. 

Read Slapin's review of Bruchac's book and get a copy. If you've got one on on your shelf, feature it in a display. For many kids, school is starting. Featuring it now helps get Native culture into the hands of children right away. Don't wait till that month designated for Native Americans (November) to share books by Native peoples.

Reading is Fundamental

A couple of years ago, Reading is Fundamental launched its Multicultural Literacy Campaign to promote reading in African American, Hispanic, and American Indian communities by providing children in those communities with books that reflect their lives.

To do that, RIF created its Literature Advisory Board and invited a group of people to help them select books that accurately reflect African American, Hispanic, and American Indian peoples. The group includes outstanding scholars in the field of children's literature. In addition to working online via email, we periodically get together to talk about the Multicultural Literacy Campaign. It is always a pleasure to visit with fellow scholars in children's literature.

In my last post, I noted I was in Washington D.C. for meetings at RIF. The meeting included a festive evening dinner to celebrate RIF's accomplishments over the past year. It included the Anne Richardson Volunteer of the Year Awards. It was terrific to see the short videos RIF put together about the three volunteers.

In the videos, children select books. Among the books shown in the videos are ones I recommend. Some are fiction, such as  Joy Harjo's The Good Luck Cat, Jan Bourdeau's Morning on the Lake, and Cynthia Leitich Smith's Jingle Dancer. Some are nonfiction in the We Are Still Here series such as Sandra King's Shannon, An Ojibwe Dancer,  Monty Roessel's Kinaalda, Russell M. Peters's Clambake.

Being from Nambe Pueblo in northern New Mexico, it was especially delightful to meet Annette Montoya from Taos, and view the video about her work in Taos! This time next month, I'll be home at Nambe for awhile.  


2010 RIF Volunteer of the Year Award Winners Video from Reading Is Fundamental on Vimeo.

I enjoy the work I do with RIF and look forward to the work we do in the coming year. This week I'll be in Michigan at the annual gathering of the Children's Literature Association. I look forward to learning about new research my colleagues are working on! I especially look forward to hanging out with Tom Crisp and Sarah Park.

Thanksgiving, 2009

In this morning's "Google Alert" email (the one I set up using "Debbie Reese" +blog), I learned that Carol Rasco, the CEO of Reading is Fundamental, had blogged about Thanksgiving on her RIF blog. There, she wrote about American Indians in Children's Literature, and how it has impacted her thinking about Thanksgiving. (I must say, though, that as I read the excerpts she used from my site, I saw how unpolished my writing can be.)

Some time ago, I was invited to be on the Reading is Fundamental Literature Advisory Committee. Prior to that, I had come across the RIF's page for November and was, frankly, pretty upset. As I recall that day (this is a two-year-old memory), I was multi-tasking on my computer. I had several websites open in my browser, moving from one to the other. (As I compose this particular post, I've got seven pages open. This morning I watched the Cherokee Nation's video "What is a real Indian Nation? What is a fake tribe?" and I read an article on Slate about book trailers.) That morning, I went to the RIF page for November. It was garrish in appearance, with cartoon Indians and a mish-mash of elements of different tribes.

While I was studying that page, a song started playing. It was a Pueblo song that I know and listen to often because of its meaning for me. I quickly started looking around my computer, wondering how I had managed to turn it on with realizing it. (Think absent-minded professor.) None of the ways that I listen to the song were activated. I realized it was coming from the RIF page. Something there, with good intentions, had created that November page using stereotypical images and a Pueblo song. It was a grab-bag. Anything Indian, slammed together. Good to go. Of course, it was not good to go.  Through my work with RIF, they took that page down.

And so this morning, one week before Thanksgiving Day, reading Carol's blog, I am heartened to learn that my interaction with RIF is making a difference in Carol's views. Among other things, she wrote:

"I hear you, Debbie, and have several copies of The Good Luck Cat and Jingle Dancer among other titles in the “to be wrapped pile” for the coming holidays for presentation to special young friends."  

Saying "awesome!" to those words doesn't begin to capture how I feel.