The Mighty Hunter

by Berta Hader, Elmer Hader

The story of a young Indian boy who wants to go hunting, but a meeting with a hungry bear causes him to think he had better go to school.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

49 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1943

About the author

Berta and Elmer Hader were an American couple who jointly illustrated more than 70 children's books, about half of which they also wrote. They won the annual Caldecott Medal for The Big Snow (1948), recognizing the year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". They received the Caldecott Honor Book Award for Cock-a-doodle-doo in 1940 and The Mighty Hunter in 1944.

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art was cute and cozy. The story was written during WWII.

It is telling a story about the importance of education. There are a few good messages in this book. The book is a mixed bag. I enjoyed the story and the art and there were some things that bothered me as a modern reader. So, I don't know exactly how to think of it.

My nephew thought the ending was hilarious with the bear. He said it was good.

[Abigail · Rating 2 out of 5]

Published in 1943 and chosen as a Caldecott Honor Book in 1944 - Berta and Elmer Hader's Cock-A-Doodle-Doo was a Caldecott Honor Book in 1940, and their The Big Snow was awarded the Caldecott Medal itself in 1949 - this picture-book follows the adventures of Little Brave Heart, a young Indian boy (tribe unnamed) who longs to be a great hunter. Slipping out of his family's teepee one day, he runs off with his bow and arrow, encountering a series of animals who all offer to help him find bigger, more worthy prey. Finally, encountering a mother bear and her cubs, Little Brave Heart is questioned as to his motives - is he so cold that he needs her fur? is he so hungry that he needs her flesh? - and then sent running on his way, when his answers are unacceptable. In the end, he concludes that school is the place for him...

Hopelessly outdated in its presentation of Native American life, and rife with stereotypes and inaccuracies - to give but one example: most young children from Indian reservations in the 1940s would have been brutally separated from their families, and forced to attend abusive boarding schools far from their homes, not allowed to remain at home and attend local schools (they also would most likely not have lived in teepees) - The Mighty Hunter is not a book I would recommend to contemporary children. It wasn't accurate or appropriate when first created, and it certainly isn't now. That said, I did find the artwork, stereotypes or no, quite beautiful, and can understand, from an aesthetic perspective, why it was honored. I also appreciated the message offered, about hunting only when one is in need, rather than for fun, as I think sport hunting is unethical. I understand that the Haders were activists, in their way, incorporating messages about conservation and animal protection into their books, and I imagine that this is an early example of that. In any case, despite the good message here, the delivery is so flawed that I would recommend the book only to Caldecott completists like myself, or to readers researching the depiction of Native Americans in older children's books.

[Cassandra Gelvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

That guy is so much tastier than me.

I'm not really sure, but this book just feels racist to me. It was written in 1943, so it's definitely rather dated. It also kind of feels like a fable with the preachy tone.

There's a little Native American boy. His mom wants him to go to school so that he'll grow up to become a wise man and a good leader. But he also wants to be a hunter, like his dad, who didn't go to school. He thinks that hunting would be a lot more fun than going to school. So he skips school to go hunting, and finds a rat and is about to shoot it with his bow, but the rat speaks to him and says, "Oh, don't waste an arrow on me. Here's a prairie dog." And the prairie dog says, "Don't waste an arrow on me!" And it keeps getting bigger and bigger animals, until finally he's directed to a bear, and the bear says, "Why are you shooting me? Do you need my fur to keep warm? Are you hungry?" And he says, "No, I'm just hunting for fun!" And the bear says, "I only hunt when I'm hungry, and I'm hungry right now!" And the bear gets mad and chases the little boy, and the little boy runs. To school. The end.

I don't even know. I don't even know where this book is going. I think it's trying to say that school is important, kind of? But it's also just one of those stories where it keeps one-upping itself in a really annoying, repetitive way, and then at the end the boy is in over his head. If he had only shot the rat. But then again, all the animals are talking to him, so what kind of universe does this take place, where all the animals are clearly sentient, but that's not why he decides not to kill them? They're not saying, "Please don't shoot me, I can hold a conversation with you!" They're saying, "Don't shoot me, shoot this other guy instead," and then tricking him into going after a bigger thing. It's stupid. It's just annoying and dumb.

Message: School is important. Or, it's okay to kill talking animals.

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

[Kevin Keating · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun little book. Old school style. Not a huge message, but it did have the mama bear making an eloquent speech.

[Rea K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my favorite book as a little kid. The only thing that this book made me want to do was be a mighty hunter. I got the cute little feather head-thing from my fair and my dad made me a bow out of a hanger. Still have a worn out copy from 1951. And by worn out, I mean the cover's come off and been repaired with duct tape, some little kids (not me) got into their heads to color on all but like five of the pages, and I'm incredibly lucky that it has all of the pages.
About the subject matter. My cousin once told me when I was whining about classic books being boring, "Read them like you're from that time period when it was written." It should be enough for us to read a book and say, "Wow, that's a good story," or "Man, I can't believe this happened." I feel that if a book makes you in any way uncomfortable about reading it to your small child, maybe you can take them aside and tell them why you're not reading this book to them.
I don't think this book had any lasting negative impact on me. I outgrew trying to be an Indian brave, I don't care about hunting. I dunno. I think it's still a neat book.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm never quite sure how to analytically handle books on Native Americans from before the 1970s, as I know most of them were very stereotypical and not very accurate. The book won a 1944 Caldecott Honor, though the only book I really liked from that year was "A Child's Good Night Book". The story is about Little Brave Heart, a Plains Indian (not sure from what tribe) who decides that instead of attending school, he will go hunting. He starts by hunting a mouse, who leads him to a prairie dog and on and on to bigger and better animals until at last he is hunting a bear. However, the bear is so much bigger and meaner than him, that he quickly decides it would be much better if he left and returned to school. So he does, in a hurry. Recommended for ages 4-7, 2 stars.

[Maria Rowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

• 1944 Caldecott Honor Book •

I like the overall message of this: that school is important, hunting should have meaning and being brave doesn’t mean you have to kill. I love the drawings and especially the endpapers, and I really enjoyed the hand lettering of the text (although trying to hand justify the text made the spacing a little strange sometimes). I’m guessing there’s some cultural inaccuracies and would be curious to know more about that.

Materials used: unlisted
Typeface used: hand lettered

[Aiden Dunnigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Mighty Hunter is a great book. It not-so-blatantly teaches the importance of an education, while at the same time showing how humans should not hunt for sport and use animals as trophies, but to coexist with nature and if the need for food from animal meat or warmth from animal hides, for example, is it then acceptable to kill something. I thought it was a morally sound and well written bit of children's literature.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given that this book was published in 1943, it isn't surprising that the stereotypes of Native peoples are outdated. (We are so much more sophisticated and grown up now!) The underlying story is clever, and the book serves as a historical marker for American racial attitudes. I might have enjoyed this when I was young in the '50s or maybe even my sons when they were young - I don't think it will probably have much traction with children today. 2.7 stars.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the layout of this book, the color scheme, and the cumulative structure. I suspect there are probably some cultural inconsistencies in the way Little Brave Heart is portrayed that should keep it out of classrooms and public story times, but the message of the story, that bravery doesn’t come from our ability to kill things, is a valuable one for any time period.

[Laura5 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I will just say a copy of this book is kept as part of a stereotypes collection at University of Arkansas at Little Rock and leave it at that:
http://ualr.edu/sequoyah/uploads/2011...

[Seema Rao · Rating 2 out of 5]

A young Native American boy has a number of adventures. While the illustrations are lovely, in that early 20th illustration way, the tone is insane--very pejorative about Native Americans. Not ideal for today's kids.

[Mckinley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, well. If one takes out the Indian issues it's a fun story. But I couldn't not read this through a lens of white hegemony.
Caldecott honor.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cumulative tale. I wonder how accurate this portrayal of Native Americans is. I suspect not very. The illustrations were fine, but nothing spectacular.

[Sarah May · Rating 4 out of 5]

See my review at http://www.littlebooksontheprairie.wo...!

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I get that this story is trying to promote education and hunting for sport, I just couldn't get past the stereotypes of Native Americans.

[Brindi Michele · Rating 2 out of 5]

1944 Caldecott Honor

I started to get annoyed with it...

[Jacob Hutton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Different than I was expecting but represented some culture different than a white middle class family. Also liked the talking animals.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot to unpack with this book. The Might Hunter (1943) by Berta and Elmer Hader is about a little Native American boy named Little Brave Heart whose parents want him to go to school and educate himself, but Little Brave Heart wants to be a great hunter, so he sets off one day to shoot an animal.

He finds the smallest animal but the animal says that such a brave hunter should shoot something bigger. Soon many animals talk Little Brave Heart into sparing their lives and going after bigger games, only to come face to face with a hungry bear who asks if Little Brave Heart is cold or needs food as a reason for his wanting to kill him. Little Brave Heart says no and that he just wants to shoot for fun, but the bear convinces him that that's not a good reason to kill.

The artwork is actually very beautiful. I think the one big issue I have with this book is the last page. I won't spoil it, but it reeks of pre-1970s WWII mentality all-American savages vs. the refined white way of life type prejudices. I think the story would have been better if the bear had just eaten Little Brave Heart to teach him a lesson in the way of Native American lifestyle which is you kill to survive, not for sport.

Even with the highly dated ending, this book was an interesting read and I think books like these tell of the American history that so many people want to get rid of, rather than educated and know what this country was like not so long ago, and how we can move forward instead of repeating our mistakes. And yes, this book is very much out-of-print. My rating - 4/5

[MaryAnne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Darling story with a great message. The illustrations are fairly typically of the era in which they were drawn. I love the hand-written (not type-set) text.

The use of the word “Indian” is outdated as are some of the cultural aspects depicted. But don’t throw the book out because of this! Use the book to teach how times have changed. Teach about what stereotypes might be embedded in the story or what historical inaccuracies it might contain. So much can be explored and learned from a simple book with an overall great message.

[Jenn · Rating 1 out of 5]

A nicely illustrated piece of anti-Native, ultra-patriotic, white Nationalist propaganda.

[Melana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful illlustrations.

[Denise Spicer · Rating 4 out of 5]

illustrated full color cover, interior cute but somewhat drab

[Lorna · Rating 2 out of 5]

1944 Caldecott Honor

Favorite illustration: p. 4-5 Where Little Brave Heart is sitting in front of the buffalo hide with picture writing.

Kid-appeal: I do like the familiar "Don't eat me . . . there is somebody bigger than me to eat" story line, but not at the expense of a heavily stereotyped book.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book about a Native American boy named Little Brave Heart. Each animal he tries to hunt with his bow and arrow tells him to hunt something bigger, until he finally ends up face to face with a grizzly bear. I liked the story, and the pictures of the animals were fun.