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2.0
I read this book to see whether we should keep it in our middle school collection or whether we should give its space to another biography of a Native American historical figure.
The good:
1) Pocahontas is a main character. I’ve read biographies of her in which Jamestown is the main character and she is little more than a side character, so yay for that. She’s a real person in this one and not just an extension of John Smith.
2) her relationship to John Smith is at least initially portrayed as one in which Pocahontas views Smith as a brother (after the adoption) and a countryman (back in London). If there was a romantic gloss it wasn’t heavy handed.
3) Pocahontas’s first marriage is acknowledged.
The bad:
1) I still think this book portrays Pocahontas and her tribe too much as simpletons easily amazed, bribed, and fooled by the wondrous white men. It’s a little less obnoxious in Fritz’s telling, but I don’t like it.
2) although Pocahontas is not called a Princess, she is described using language like “regal” and “standing tall and proud like a Princess”. There is another native woman in the book who flat out called an Indian Queen. I’ve learned from reading Debbie Reese at the American Indians in Children’s Literature blog that these are European terms, not native ones. “If it sounds European, it probably is.” https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2015/08/kathleen-krulls-pocahontas-princess-of.html?m=1
Reese encourages librarians to weed books that describe Pocahontas as a Princess to avoid miseducating readers, so I guess we should likely weed this one.
I hear that Joseph Bruchac has written a historical novel about Pocahontas. I haven’t read it yet, but will seek it out to see if our library can stock it for readers looking for the story of Pocahontas instead.
As for our biography section, I think replacing this with nearly any biography of a Native American that was actually written by a Native American (rather than a white historian/author, however talented) would serve our students better.
The good:
1) Pocahontas is a main character. I’ve read biographies of her in which Jamestown is the main character and she is little more than a side character, so yay for that. She’s a real person in this one and not just an extension of John Smith.
2) her relationship to John Smith is at least initially portrayed as one in which Pocahontas views Smith as a brother (after the adoption) and a countryman (back in London). If there was a romantic gloss it wasn’t heavy handed.
3) Pocahontas’s first marriage is acknowledged.
The bad:
1) I still think this book portrays Pocahontas and her tribe too much as simpletons easily amazed, bribed, and fooled by the wondrous white men. It’s a little less obnoxious in Fritz’s telling, but I don’t like it.
2) although Pocahontas is not called a Princess, she is described using language like “regal” and “standing tall and proud like a Princess”. There is another native woman in the book who flat out called an Indian Queen. I’ve learned from reading Debbie Reese at the American Indians in Children’s Literature blog that these are European terms, not native ones. “If it sounds European, it probably is.” https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2015/08/kathleen-krulls-pocahontas-princess-of.html?m=1
Reese encourages librarians to weed books that describe Pocahontas as a Princess to avoid miseducating readers, so I guess we should likely weed this one.
I hear that Joseph Bruchac has written a historical novel about Pocahontas. I haven’t read it yet, but will seek it out to see if our library can stock it for readers looking for the story of Pocahontas instead.
As for our biography section, I think replacing this with nearly any biography of a Native American that was actually written by a Native American (rather than a white historian/author, however talented) would serve our students better.
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