Fry Bread by Kevin Noble Maillard Book Review

       








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 when they were relocated so they had to learn how to make do with what they were given which was flour, butter, lard, and salt. The story shows that even when times are tough, the Native people were able to survive and persevere through it all. Fry bread symbolizes some of the toughest times in their history but it also shows that they had the ingenuity and ability to survive despite the odds that were not in their favor. 

The illustrations are done in colored pencil and shows people of all races and tribes together working together to make the fry bread with diversity being a main theme of the story even though it is about the Navajo people. The kids are included in the pictures as the adults are telling them the story and history of fry bread and all the illustrations are meant to invoke a sense of belonging and understanding. The dolls and the mother holding the baby with another small child looking on in the middle of the book talks about how art is important to her people as well. Juana invokes many emotions that run the gamut as you read the story. 

Review: Kirkus Review 

Abright picture book invites kids to cook with a Native American grandma.

Kids of all races carry flour, salt, baking powder, and other supplies into the kitchen to make dough for fry bread. Flour dusts the counter as oil sizzles on the stove. Veggies, beans, and honey make up the list of toppings, and when the meal is ready, everyone is invited to join the feast. Community love is depicted in this book as its characters gather on Indigenous land across the continent—indoors, outdoors, while making art or gazing at the night sky. This is about more than food, referencing cultural issues such as the history of displacement, starvation, and the struggle to survive, albeit in subtle ways appropriate for young children. With buoyant, heartfelt illustrations that show the diversity in Native America, the book tells the story of a post-colonial food, a shared tradition across the North American continent. Broken down into headings that celebrate what fry bread is, this story reaches readers both young and old thanks to the author’s note at the back of the book that dives into the social ways, foodways, and politics of America’s 573 recognized tribes. Through this topic that includes the diversity of so many Native peoples in a single story, Maillard (Mekusukey Seminole) promotes unity and familiarity among nations.


Fry bread is much more than food, as this book amply demonstrates. (recipe) (Picture book. 3-8)


Connection: Students could take the time to make fry bread with their family using this recipe: 

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/17053/navajo-fry-bread-ii/

Another book by Kevin Noble Maillard

Loving v. Virginia in a Post-Racial World: Rethinking Race, Sex, and Marriage  ISBN: 978-0521198585









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