The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich.
Disney Hyperion, New York, 1999, my edition 2002.
Historical fiction, 244 pages including glossary.
National Book Award Finalist
Lexile: 970L .
AR Level: 6.1 (worth 7.0 points) .
NOTES: This is a work of fiction although I am not reviewing it on Fiction Friday.
While the main character is seven, I would recommend this book for older children.
This is one year in the life of seven-year-old Omakayas (Oh-MAH-kay-ahs), an Ojibwa (Anishinabe) girl, in 1847.
Wow. From the suspenseful prologue to the last word, I was fully immersed in this book. The best historical fiction I’ve read in a long time, I might even like it better than Abby Takes a Stand. To think I didn’t really want to read it that much!
I’d seen this book recommended so many times, but was avoiding it because I was required to read one of Erdrich’s books in college and did not like it. That book was The Antelope Wife. I found it unreadable – one of very few required novels I didn’t read cover to cover. My professor was trying to be modern and avant-garde but the book was incomprehensible and had no plot, just intricate emotionally-laden descriptions that initially intrigued and later bored me. I’m so glad to see that Erdrich has rewritten that book and the new edition is supposed to be much more readable, because in this book, I absolutely loved her take on historical fiction.
Colorful Book Reviews 