In My Mother's House

by Ann Nolan Clark, Velino Herrera (Illustrator)

1969 THE VIKING PRESS SOFTCOVER

Genres: Poetry, Picture Books, Childrens, Native American, Indigenous, Cultural, Historical Fiction

64 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1941

About the author

Ann Nolan Clark, born Anna Marie Nolan, was an American writer who won the 1953 Newbery Medal.

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think you could easily sing this story - it would work well. This is another WWII era book so there is no color. The drawings are black and white.

A Native American boy tells this tale of his mother's house and the village life he lives in. The poetry really works well with the life depicted. This is like a documentary. There really isn't a story or plot. She lays out everything there is in the village and village life. I think it's great to have a Native American story told, but it's to bad it isn't more of a story about something rather than a list of what happens in the village. Yet, as a historical record, it is a nice document to keep.

The kids were not much into this one. It was too long and not so exciting. I fear this has not aged well for our times. I enjoyed it, but the kids, not so much.

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

First published in 1941, and chosen as a Caldecott Honor Book in 1942 - other titles chosen that year include An American ABC , Paddle-to-the-Sea and Nothing At All - this collection of poems presents a group of Tewa children's view of life in the Tesuque Pueblo, outside of Santa Fe, and was created because its author, for many years a teacher of Native American children, had noticed the dearth of children's books told from the indigenous perspective. Beginning with the home, the poems (or poem, if you will, as they are all interconnected) address such issues as the plaza, or public space of the community, the field and irrigation ditches, and the hills and mountains around the pueblo. The book concludes back in the home, as the young narrator(s) describes all of these elements of Pueblo life as making a chain: "A strong chain, / To hold me close / To home, / Where I live / In my Mother's house."

Apparently collected from the Tewa students she taught, these simple poems reflect the teller(s)' direct relationship with the world around them, their affection for their families and community, and their strong ties to home. The book was originally hand-bound, decorated with artwork from the children themselves, and used as a geography in Clark's classroom at the Tesuque Pueblo. It was later published in book form, with illustrations by artist Velino Herrera (credited here as "Herrara," he was also known a Ma-Pe-Wi), who was from the Zia Pueblo. Although not destined to become a particular favorite of mine, I did enjoy In My Mother's House, and think that it could be a interesting title, when used in study-units on the native peoples of the Southwest. The artwork, which alternates between black and white and full color, is gorgeous!

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally getting a chance to enjoy this.

The poems are certainly creative - I think they're more songs, as they definitely call to be read aloud. And the cadence, which I can't quite capture, is probably easy for the Native speakers, natural in their language. It sounds similar to the monologues of Laughing Boy, a classic (for YA or adult) with a very similar setting.

The only improvement that I would ask of the book is for more white space... I kept reading straight through to the next poem because there was nothing to separate the flow.

Very worthy of the Caldecott honor, and recommended.

I need to verify, but I'm almost positive that I have learned that the poems were actually written from the students' writings, and that the illustrator is really Pueblo/ Tewa.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

So. Native American stories told by non-Native Americans are problematic. I have read enough of Debbie Reese's blog to take the text with a grain of salt, as the author was a white woman who worked at an Indian school. While she professed to having written this because she believed the children's stories needed to be told, a better course of action today may be to help the children write their own stories rather than taking them.

HOWEVER, the illustrator of the book, to whom the Caldecott was awarded, is Velino Herrera, who was (according to this site http://www.adobegallery.com/artist/Ve... ) a member of the Zia Pueblo Tribe and therefore would seem to therefore be qualified to accurately depict his life growing up.

The illustrations are interesting, with both scenes of the life described and abstract graphic designs.

[Megan Willis · Rating 5 out of 5]

-beautiful poetry written by the Tewa children of the Tesuque Pueblo
-illuminates and informs about the traditional and modern lifestyle
-copies of poems for center during Native American unit

[Katie Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the most unique poetry book I've read. The entire book is all about an Indian describing the homes, customs, work, community, and spiritual sense of his people. So there are different poems in this book, but they all correlate to the theme of getting to know about his culture. It's also unique in the sense that absolutely none of the poems rhyme. However, they are full of imagery and figurative language. I would consider it a narrative form of poetry since the entire book tells this boy's story. This would be a great book to use to study poetry that doesn't rhyme. I may even have students come up with more poems to add to the boy's story.

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations in this book did complement the poems well, but I simply was not that impressed with them. The illustrator seems to have taken care to depict the Pueblo people accurately, but I thought the illustrations were just average compared to the work of other illustrators that I have seen. The black and white drawings were not as detailed as the works of such illustrators as Robert Lawson, Robert McCloskey, Trina Schart Hyman, and Chris Van Allsburg. The color paintings seemed a bit fuzzy, but I did like the paintings of the horses; they looked very beautiful.

[Laura5 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The dust jacket notes that the Clark found "there was a need in the Indian schools for books written from the Indian point of view."

[Crystal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. Another story told "from the native american perspective" though written by a non-native. Not hideous, but also not great.

[Carol Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing little book. The story is told by a Tewa child (gender not specified). And today I learned something new - the Tewa people are a group of Pueblo Native Americans.

I really appreciate the fact that the story is not a fantasy, but a factual insight into the child's life in the early 1900s in a Pueblo village. And the illustrations are beautiful. The child introduces us to many of the important influences on the peoples' lives: animals, weather, plants, homes, food, seasonal weather cycles, the mountains, other people, etc.

This was written as a children's book and seems to be still relevant today. It is a historical, non-stereotyped look at people as they worked and lived together.

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 3 out of 5]

An early Caldecott Honor. A lot of words. And stilted. And pretty good art. But no through-story, no characters. Informative but without enough details to be believable. And this isn't believable as the story of all Native peoples. This is perhaps a description of some people for a short amount of time. Near the Rio Grande. And with horses and cows and goats and sheep and wheat and pueblos. This would probably work well as a companion book to something that placed this book in a more specific time and place.

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story doesn't pop with scintillating action, but In My Mother's House is a sturdy nonfiction picture book with a lot to offer readers curious about Native American life of the era in which it is set. Coupled with sweet, simple drawings by Velino Herrera, some in full color and others etched in black and white, Ann Nolan Clark's poems of Indian life are sincere and revealing, a valuable look at the way their communities operated. From page one, the respectful attitude the young narrator shows his elders and the leaders of the Council is evident, and provides a strong example of the rewards of right behavior. Beyond the mechanics of daily Native American life at the time In My Mother's House was published, this is what readers will take from the book.

It's a hardworking life for the Indians of the plaza, both to better their individual homes and their larger community nestled at the base of the mountains. Wherever and whenever their labor is required, the Indians work steadfastly most of the day, young and old, male and female. Working together forms close bonds among the community, connections they can fall back on in absolute trust when they need to. The Indians don't have much money, but they care for one another and celebrate the good times as a tight-knit group, and our young narrator has no desire for any other kind of life. He has all he wants in the house built by his father, adobe and brown clay walls turned into a loving home by his mother. Transcending matters of race, religion, and intellect, the core family is a unit invaluable to every culture, a part of society that cannot be replaced. In My Mother's House helps us appreciate the diverse manifestation of family around the globe, and reminds us to be grateful for our own families.

When Ann Nolan Clark comes to mind, I think first of a Newbery Medal winner (for Secret of the Andes, 1953) who beat out E.B. White and his all-time great Charlotte's Web for the award. I consider that one of the most egregious mistakes in Newbery history, and many who agree treat Secret of the Andes with open scorn, but I do not. The book is not magnificent like Charlotte's Web, but is nonetheless a moving, wise novel of finding one's feet in an ever-changing world, and I love it. Ann Nolan Clark's quiet regard for foreign culture is as evident throughout In My Mother's House as it is in Secret of the Andes, and though I didn't love it as much, it's a book to be proud of. She knows how to bring a story to a good close, that's for sure. Velino Herrera's illustrations are nice, though less exceptional than most Caldecott Honor recipients. Kids used to picture books with less text might squirm a little at first sight of this one, but it's a read well worth doing. I'm satisfied with it, and I think you will be, too.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book contained a series of 29 poems about the Pueblo people, as told through the viewpoint of a Pueblo child. They talk about the child's home that he/she lives in and that his parents built themselves, the things they eat and grow, their community and work. My favorite poems were "Juniper," "Lakes," and "Indian Tea." There were black and white illustrations as well as color, which I believe were paintings. My favorite ones were the horse pictures, as there were so many different kinds of horses depicted. This book won a 1942 Caldecott Honor award.

The coolest part about this book are the author and illustrator. Ann Nolan Clark and Velino Herrera were both born in New Mexico, and Herrera was a Zia Pueblo Indian artist (also known as Ma Pe Wi). Herrera went on to give his version of the Zia people, in illustrated form - it means sun in Indian languages, to the State of New Mexico (which did not endear him to his people). The book was apparently created for the Bureau of Indian Affairs as educational materials, which makes sense as the author worked as a teacher of Native American students for 25 years. Because the schools she worked in did not have good instructional material, she started making her own (this book being one of them). She also won a Newberry Award for her book "Secret of the Andes." I love this quote that I found (http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/AIE/NARre...), in which she describes how a good book should affect a child "The story must be vital to him. He must be able to live it as the pages turn. It must enrich the world he knows and lead him into a wider, larger unfamiliar world. The experience of having known it must have been an adventure and a delight.... A good book has an inner quality that may have a deep, personal, special meaning for some child, somewhere. It is an unfortunate adult who does not remember certain books of his childhood that he will hold forever dear." This quote makes me wish all children's books were like this.

[Cassandra Gelvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

One little, two little, three little, poems by Native Americans...

This is a bunch of poems written by Native American children in the 1940s, back before anybody cared enough about these kinds of things to keep track of, say, the children's names, or ages, or anything. So although they seem very similar, they vary in quality. Some of them are very repetitious as though written by young children (or just mediocre poets), while some of them are very high quality, such as the Indian Tea poem.

The poetry is non-rhyming and the topics are different things that you would imagine the children would experience in their pueblo in New Mexico, like growing corn and trees, gathering plants, horses, cows, pueblos, building houses, that kind of thing.

It's kind of boring and really wordy for a little kid. It's interesting from an anthropological standpoint, but it's not gripping enough for a young child. It might be useful for children living in other situations or for exposing children to other cultures. Older children might be interested, but again the poetry quality isn't that high. Basically the only thing going for it is that the poetry was actually written by Native American children. If that wasn't true, nobody would give it a second look.

Message: There is an interesting story behind being a Native American child.

For more children's book reviews, see my website at http://www.drttmk.com.

[Maria Rowe · Rating 1 out of 5]

• 1942 Caldecott Honor Book •

I didn’t like this very much. I thought the text was repetitive and boring, and the illustrations jump back and forth between detailed black and white drawings to almost blurry colored drawings.

I don’t really understand the makeup of this book either. The book jacket seems to note that this is a collection of poetry by the Tewa children. Clark “noticed that there were virtually no books written from the Native American point of view, and with the government’s permission began her project to gather the writings of Native American children. These poems are the results: a gathering of the children’s stories.” Yet there’s a uniformity to the writing, so it seems like Clark used the children’s ideas rather than being an editor like the book jacket seems to claim. Why weren’t the children credited if these are their poems? And why did Clark need the “government’s permission”? I’m so confused by all this. This book really bothers me.

I wish this book gave more information about how it came to be and who really wrote the stories, but in the end, I still didn’t like the poems or illustrations very much.

[Rebecca Leedham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a story that continues on from the phrase “In my mothers house…” by describing people, actions, and the place. The book is written in poetic style. Each page continues on from the one before, creating one whole story, but written with poems. The illustrations helped this book to be a Caldecott honor. The illustrator does something different with this book that I do not think I have seen before. Some of the illustrations are black and white, while others are color. I think that by doing this, the reader is inclined to focus more on the colorful illustrations than the black and white. However, each illustration should be just as important. Since the choice of color and black and white illustrations seem to be at random, I think that it may be more beneficial for both the author and the illustrator if the illustrations stuck with one or the other. I do think this book could be a good way to show an advanced example of poetry to students, but it may not be the best way to show poetry to new learners.

[Sierra Chavez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book was great. It is about a little boy who starts off by telling a story about his house and about his mother and what she contributes to the household. Then he talks about the plaza which is the place in the center of the pueblos. He talks about what each person does, especially his father. The story continues about how each little thing around him contributes to be apart of his everyday life. In the end he talks about how "the pueblo, the people, and fire, and fields, and water, and land, and animals"(56) come together like beads on a chain. He says that it connects him back to his home where he is from.

[SamZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Caldecott honor book from 1942, this story was not what I expected. I was pleasantly surprised to find a children's book about the Native American people of the southwest and their ways of life. I loved the illustrations. They ranged from stylized designs meant to imitate the patterns found on the blankets and pottery of the region to realistic depictions of the plants, animals, and people that made up the every day life of the pueblo children. This book was beautiful and I found myself wanting to send it to my nephew who currently lives in New Mexico. Definitely worthy of the Honor distinction.

[Jenna Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary:
This book is about a young Tewan Indian who describes his house, family, traditions, and activities.

Writing Trait:
Sentence fluency - The story is written in a particular and almost poetic way. It is broken up into small paragraphs with each line only having one short sentence or phrase.

Our Mothers
Dry guaco flowers,
And the leaves and stems.
They grind them into flour
To mix with cornmeal
To make us bread.

Mentor text:
I could use this book when students are learning about Native Americans. This would be a nice example to show young students how to make a short descriptive and simple sentence.

Reading level: 4.3

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read for this challenge that I just did not get. The text is repetitive to the point of becoming annoying and predictable, and the illustrations, somewhat interesting, didn't strike me as remarkable. In fact, I thought they were sort of mismatched in places. Realistic buildings clash with cartoonish clouds, and after a while, many of the images seemed like repeats of earlier illustrations. I understood that the book wanted to portray a particular culture, but I didn't feel like I got a true sense of that culture at all.

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of Pueblo Indian poems about people, land, animals etc. Illustrations are simple, some are full color, most are black and white. The pictures reminded me of textbook illustrations; they performed the task at hand, but weren't amazing. The writing was good, though I wonder if it comes from a personal experience or rather from an observational outsider standpoint.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I had had this collection of verse about the everyday life of Pueblo Indians on our trip through the Southwest - it would have helped evoke more from the text and illustrations. The book is subdivided into sections about specific animals, plants, terrain, buildings, etc. The illustrations are precise but still carry some feeling and help carry the verse.

[Robert Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

**** Caldecott Honor (1942) ****

Apparently this book was created as a reading book for Indian children... The dust jacket notes that the author, Ann Nolan Clark found "there was a need in the Indian schools for books written from the Indian point of view." In that respect, I can see it having some value. I don't think it will appeal to modern children quite so much, but it's not bad.

[Hailey Ek · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a great poem to describe the resources the Pueblo had in their land. It talks about how they use each and every resource in great detail. I would love to use this during a history lesson. I would read, and provoke conversation in my classroom about the different resources they used, how some are still used today, or what may be different about the resources that are used today.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very entertaining book, and quite informational. Like many books of this era, the illustrations are mostly black and white, with a few color images. I think the color illustrations are fantastic, and even the black and white ones are well done.

[Stephanie Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book visualizes Mexican culture through poetry. The narrator discusses everything from wildlife and farming to his home and culture. This book could be used to introduce Mexican culture to a classroom but I would recommend it to upper grades due to the intricate phrasing.

[Whitney Schlager · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked how descriptive this book was. I enjoyed watching as the boy told of his family and his community and how everything and everyone contributed to the everyday life and how things are built and produced.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book full of diagrams and illustrations combined to enhance the poetry that gives an insight into the world of the Tewa children of Tesuque Pueblo, near Santa Fe.

[Michelle Leonard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting look into Native American culture through children's poetry.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

a story about hogan a family who lives in the southwest and their cultural homes