Book Musings with Cattau

         Written by Tim Tingle  Published by Roadrunner Press in 2015 ISBN:978-1937054557 Plot Summary: Isaac who is a ghost is telling the story about when he learned that he was going to have to abandon his home in Mississippi and go on a journey to a new place that they don't know but while they are packing up Isaac sees visions of his people bursting into flames or becoming diseased and needing help. Isaac sees that his house is going up in smoke as the white men have set fire so his people go to the swamp to try and get away from the white men. Issac is helping out a family that he discovers when he is attacked by a wolf and is killed. He helps find a missing girl named Naomi and with the help of Joseph who is the grandson of the leaders of the tribe, he is able to keep her safe from the soldiers and find her way back to her family.  Critical Analysis (Including Cultural Markers): Issac has many supernatural gifts but they don't become fully realized until he becomes a gho

        Written by Kevin Noble Maillard Illustrated by: Juana Martinez-Neal  Published by Roaring Brook Press in 2019 ISBN:978-1626727465 Plot Summary: Fry Bread is a food that is traditional to the Navajo people and this story is told in simple lyrical text where we learn more about the history of the bread and how it brings people of all generations together. The book talks about the many different tribes that were subjected to relocation and how they learned to make fry bread a new part of their culture. The book ends with a message of courage and hope as they are making Fry bread.  Critical Analysis (Including Cultural Markers): This book is all about how food brings people together. Food connects people and generations and this story includes the history of the trail of tears but is mentioned in a kid friendly way as the long walk is referenced in the middle of the book. Fry Bread is a comfort food for the Navajo people as they weren't able to use their own traditional foods w

       Written by Angeline Boulley Published by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) in 2021 ISBN:978-1250766564 Plot Summary: Daunis Fontaine is a mixed race child from her mother's French/Italian side and her father's Ojibwe side. Daunis has a very hard family life with lots of illness and death and she finds herself in the middle of a tough situation where someone is making meth and is distributing it to her people as well as the school around her. She becomes an informant for the police as she is very ingrained with the people at her school and she finds out that it is her brother and his hockey team friends who are the ones that are making and distributing it and she is kidnapped by the Tribal Judge who has a part in the operation. Daunis realizes that she wants to help people so she decides to go to college at the University of Hawaii where she is able to research ethnobotany and traditional medicine just like her ancestors did for many years.  Critical Analysis (Including Cultural M

      Written by Joesph Bruchac  Published by Speak in 2006 ISBN: 978-0142405963 Plot Summary: Ned Begay is an American Indian child who is taken from his family and is taught how to embrace Anglo American culture and the customs rather than his traditional culture. Ned is able to learn English and excels at school where he is able to enlist in the U.S. Army so that he can become a Navajo Code talker who is able to transmit information across unsecure channels so that the Axis powers can't understand what is being said because it is in a different language. Ned's military service includes time in the Pacific where he is able to be on the front lines of the Atomic bomb being dropped and after he gets home, he uses the GI bill to further his education and he gets recognition for his service by the U.S. government after his service is considered declassified in 1969.  Critical Analysis (Including Cultural Markers): Ned Begay (original name Kii Yazhi) is a smart and curious kid who

     Written by Matt de la Pena Published by Ember in 2010  ISBN: 978-0440239383 Plot Summary: Danny Lopez is a high school student who has come to spend the summer with his father's family while his mother and sister are back home in San Francisco with her boyfriend. Danny immediately doesn't fit into the community as he comes from an elite private school where he plays select baseball and the area is mostly lower income and hispanic. He struggles with his mixed heritage of being half white and half Mexican even though his father's family welcomes him with open arms. He sees his privilege as an obstacle that keeps him from being truly accepted into the family as well as the fact that they speak primarily in Spanish which he doesn't understand fully. Danny meets a girl named Liberty who is also half Mexican but she doesn't speak English very well so it makes it hard for them to communicate.  Danny goes about creating narrative in his head that his dad left to move t

    Written by Margarita Engle  Illustrated by Rafael Lopez  Published by Dreamscape Media in 2016  ISBN: 978-1520018171 Plot Summary: This is a book of poetry that is focusing on the historical figure Millo Castro Zaldarriaga who is a Chinese-African-Cuban drummer where it was unheard of for a girl to be a drummer at that time in Cuba. Millo spends time dreaming about being a drummer and she thinks about all the different types of drums including conga drums, bongo drums, and even the timables which are the silver small drums that you can play on your hand. Millo feels the beat of the drum in everything that she does including walking, her heartbeat, and in the environment around her like listening to the woodpecker. She is constantly reminded that she doesn't belong as a drummer she finds ways to find drums and play and she even gets invited to be a part of a band. Her father says that only boys plays drums but relents and finds her a teacher who sees her natural talents and enco

   Written by Margarita Engle  Published by Square Fish in 2010  ISBN: 978-0312608712 Plot Summary: The book is based on Rosario Castellanos Castellanos who is a famous person in Cuban American history. She was a freed slave who works as a nurse for the rebels who are fighting against the Spanish in the mid to late 1800's in Cuba. The poems are free verse and are written from the perspective of 4 different people: Rosa, Jose her husband, a slave hunter named Lieutenant Death in the story, and a girl named Sylvia. The novel is written in 5 different parts that cover Rosa's story from childhood to adulthood.  The first part is titled "The Names of the Flowers" and is talks about how Rosa grows up in the field amd learns about the healing properties of different plants and herbs from the women. Rosa helps to heal runaway slaves who have been beaten after running away and this is where she meets Teniente Muerte otherwise known as Lieutenant Death. The Lieutenant doesn'

  Written by Pat Mora Illustrated by Rafael Lopez  Published by Lee and Low Books in 2007 ISBN: 978-1584302711 Plot Summary: This is a collection of poems that is written in Haiku with an informational section next to each poem to learn more about different types of food. The set of haikus was about blueberries, chile peppers, chocolate, corn, cranberry, peanuts, pecan, pineapple, potatoes, prickly pears, papaya, pumpkin, tomatoes, and vanilla. The information section for each gives more information about the food, with some of the information given about how it was used for different purposes as well as letting us know where the food was from and where it is currently being used today. Pat includes information about how it is used in the U.S. as well as in other countries like Mexico.  Critical Analysis (Including Cultural Markers): Lopez does a wonderful job of being culturally relevant and making sure that the art that he uses has a distinctive Latino influence as well as being vibr

Written by Patricia McKissack Illustrated by April Harrison Published by Schwartz and Wade in 2019 ISBN: 978-0375836152 Plot Summary: The story begins with the boy James Otis learning that his dad died. His mom loses the family farm so they have to move into very shabby housing in the bottoms. James Otis and his mom go to church and they decide to go on a mission to follow the pastor's challenge of helping those around them that are less fortunate. Mama decides to use her only nice tablecloth to give to a mom who's family lost everything in a fire. That makes James think long and hard to try and decide what to give the little girl who is 2 years younger than him. The day comes at the church where the family gets their box full of things needed to start over. James hands Sarah the little girl a book all about her called From My Heart to Your Heart. Sarah loves it and as James and his mom were walking home talking about how good they felt helping, they find their own love box on