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Children of Clay: A Family of Pueblo Potters
Like their Pueblo ancestors, Gia Rose and her family treat the clay with respect. They believe that Clay-Old-Woman, the spirit of clay, watches over their work and that she lives and breathes within each piece of pottery. Many things have changed at Santa Clara Pueblo, but the making of pottery remains the same. It is still done completely by hand, using clay taken from the earth and other natural materials. Follow one family as they carry on the age-old Pueblo tradition of pottery-making.
40 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 18, 2010
This book tell the story of the members of Tewa Indian family of Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico. these people follow the traditions of their people as they show us how to create pots and bowl from clay. How to make clay is interesting in this text. There are beautiful pictures throughout as well as lots of maps.
May 25, 2023
A very detailed and engaging book about the process of gathering clay and pottery-making by a family of Pueblo potters.
April 16, 2011
This is one of the books in the superb series We Are Still Here, which are photojournalism books about modern Native Americans. I was particularly smitten with this one. I love pottery, I’m interested in the southwest, and I’m interested in Pueblo culture. I love that all involved with the creation of this book (author, photographer, and 2 series consultants) are all Native Americans, and that the author is a potter herself. Also, 3 of the 4 contributors reside in the southwest; the Pueblo family who are featured in this book live in northern New Mexico.
The photos are perfection: of the pottery (pots, animals, etc.), of the various family members (though I do wish more of the mentioned people had made it into some photos), of the earth, and the landscape. The children are all adorable. I love maps in books and the maps here tremendously enhance the book.
This extended family ranges from an infant to great grandparents. There are many family members, and they all work together, as is traditional, at every stage of pottery making. The children fully participate. The most fascinating parts for me were some of the early stages, including the trip to gather the clay from the earth and then later toward the end of the process I loved seeing the firing pit.
The reader learns about all the stages of this work, from getting the clay to selling the finished pieces, a process that takes quite a bit of time, though some of the time is time spent waiting for the clay to do its thing.
I appreciated how storytelling is part of this. There are a few short folk stories included that are inserted into this otherwise non-fiction account.
This is a very fortunate family, to have one another, to be able to work together, and to able to create such lovely pieces.
I’d love to spend some time in this area and learn and participate in traditional pottery making. I love this kind of art!
There are Tewa language words throughout the book, with their English language counterparts, and then there is a word list in the back of the book too. I found two new books from the series in the series list in the back of the book and added them. There are also eight books listed in the For Further Reading section in the back, and I had interest in all of them; the only reason I didn’t add them is I’m trying to curtail my to-read adds and they’re all a couple decades old, so I’m thinking there might be many more such books including some more recent ones.
This is a wonderful book for readers who enjoy family stories, are interested in extended families, in modern Native Americans, in pottery making, in reading stories about cultures, and who enjoy contemplating personal senses of identity and longstanding traditions of a people.
4 ½ stars
The photos are perfection: of the pottery (pots, animals, etc.), of the various family members (though I do wish more of the mentioned people had made it into some photos), of the earth, and the landscape. The children are all adorable. I love maps in books and the maps here tremendously enhance the book.
This extended family ranges from an infant to great grandparents. There are many family members, and they all work together, as is traditional, at every stage of pottery making. The children fully participate. The most fascinating parts for me were some of the early stages, including the trip to gather the clay from the earth and then later toward the end of the process I loved seeing the firing pit.
The reader learns about all the stages of this work, from getting the clay to selling the finished pieces, a process that takes quite a bit of time, though some of the time is time spent waiting for the clay to do its thing.
I appreciated how storytelling is part of this. There are a few short folk stories included that are inserted into this otherwise non-fiction account.
This is a very fortunate family, to have one another, to be able to work together, and to able to create such lovely pieces.
I’d love to spend some time in this area and learn and participate in traditional pottery making. I love this kind of art!
There are Tewa language words throughout the book, with their English language counterparts, and then there is a word list in the back of the book too. I found two new books from the series in the series list in the back of the book and added them. There are also eight books listed in the For Further Reading section in the back, and I had interest in all of them; the only reason I didn’t add them is I’m trying to curtail my to-read adds and they’re all a couple decades old, so I’m thinking there might be many more such books including some more recent ones.
This is a wonderful book for readers who enjoy family stories, are interested in extended families, in modern Native Americans, in pottery making, in reading stories about cultures, and who enjoy contemplating personal senses of identity and longstanding traditions of a people.
4 ½ stars
June 20, 2007
This 48 page book with color photos and maps throughout does a beautiful job of explaining that "We are still here." I found it while searching for "S" level non-fiction for my fourth graders, but it would make a good read aloud or reference book for other grades. The first half of the book tells about a family going to get clay and the second half tells about how they make pottery, there is also a traditional folk tale included.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews