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First Fire: An Algonkian Story
Kindle Edition
Published July 21, 2026
About the author
Joseph Bruchac
291 books608 followersJoseph Bruchac lives with his wife, Carol, in the Adirondack mountain foothills town of Greenfield Center, New York, in the same house where his maternal grandparents raised him. Much of his writing draws on that land and his Abenaki ancestry. Although his American Indian heritage is only one part of an ethnic background that includes Slovak and English blood, those Native roots are the ones by which he has been most nourished. He, his younger sister Margaret, and his two grown sons, James and Jesse, continue to work extensively in projects involving the preservation of Abenaki culture, language and traditional Native skills, including performing traditional and contemporary Abenaki music with the Dawnland Singers.
He holds a B.A. from Cornell University, an M.A. in Literature and Creative Writing from Syracuse and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the Union Institute of Ohio. His work as a educator includes eight years of directing a college program for Skidmore College inside a maximum security prison. With his wife, Carol, he is the founder and Co-Director of the Greenfield Review Literary Center and The Greenfield Review Press. He has edited a number of highly praised anthologies of contemporary poetry and fiction, including Songs from this Earth on Turtle's Back, Breaking Silence (winner of an American Book Award) and Returning the Gift. His poems, articles and stories have appeared in over 500 publications, from American Poetry Review, Cricket and Aboriginal Voices to National Geographic, Parabola and Smithsonian Magazine. He has authored more than 70 books for adults and children, including The First Strawberries, Keepers of the Earth (co-authored with Michael Caduto), Tell Me a Tale, When the Chenoo Howls (co-authored with his son, James), his autobiography Bowman's Store and such novels as Dawn Land, The Waters Between, Arrow Over the Door and The Heart of a Chief. Forthcoming titles include Squanto's Journey (Harcourt), a picture book, Sacajawea (Harcourt), an historical novel, Crazy Horse's Vision (Lee & Low), a picture book, and Pushing Up The Sky (Dial), a collection of plays for children. His honors include a Rockefeller Humanities fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship for Poetry, the Cherokee Nation Prose Award, the Knickerbocker Award, the Hope S. Dean Award for Notable Achievement in Children's Literature and both the 1998 Writer of the Year Award and the 1998 Storyteller of the Year Award from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. In 1999, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas.
As a professional teller of the traditional tales of the Adirondacks and the Native peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Joe Bruchac has performed widely in Europe and throughout the United States from Florida to Hawaii and has been featured at such events as the British Storytelling Festival and the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, Tennessee. He has been a storyteller-in-residence for Native American organizations and schools throughout the continent, including the Institute of Alaska Native Arts and the Onondaga Nation School. He discusses Native culture and his books and does storytelling programs at dozens of elementary and secondary schools each year as a visiting author.
He holds a B.A. from Cornell University, an M.A. in Literature and Creative Writing from Syracuse and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the Union Institute of Ohio. His work as a educator includes eight years of directing a college program for Skidmore College inside a maximum security prison. With his wife, Carol, he is the founder and Co-Director of the Greenfield Review Literary Center and The Greenfield Review Press. He has edited a number of highly praised anthologies of contemporary poetry and fiction, including Songs from this Earth on Turtle's Back, Breaking Silence (winner of an American Book Award) and Returning the Gift. His poems, articles and stories have appeared in over 500 publications, from American Poetry Review, Cricket and Aboriginal Voices to National Geographic, Parabola and Smithsonian Magazine. He has authored more than 70 books for adults and children, including The First Strawberries, Keepers of the Earth (co-authored with Michael Caduto), Tell Me a Tale, When the Chenoo Howls (co-authored with his son, James), his autobiography Bowman's Store and such novels as Dawn Land, The Waters Between, Arrow Over the Door and The Heart of a Chief. Forthcoming titles include Squanto's Journey (Harcourt), a picture book, Sacajawea (Harcourt), an historical novel, Crazy Horse's Vision (Lee & Low), a picture book, and Pushing Up The Sky (Dial), a collection of plays for children. His honors include a Rockefeller Humanities fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship for Poetry, the Cherokee Nation Prose Award, the Knickerbocker Award, the Hope S. Dean Award for Notable Achievement in Children's Literature and both the 1998 Writer of the Year Award and the 1998 Storyteller of the Year Award from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. In 1999, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas.
As a professional teller of the traditional tales of the Adirondacks and the Native peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Joe Bruchac has performed widely in Europe and throughout the United States from Florida to Hawaii and has been featured at such events as the British Storytelling Festival and the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, Tennessee. He has been a storyteller-in-residence for Native American organizations and schools throughout the continent, including the Institute of Alaska Native Arts and the Onondaga Nation School. He discusses Native culture and his books and does storytelling programs at dozens of elementary and secondary schools each year as a visiting author.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 15, 2026
How Humans Acquired Fire
This lovely children's picture book, "First Fire" tells a story of how humans acquired fire long ago. The story is a combination of different Indian traditions from the East to the West coasts but with the perspective of the Algonkian peoples who lived on the Atlantic coasts and inland of the the United States and Canada. The award-winning author Joseph Bruchac and hs son James Bruchac retell this story with illustrations by David Kanietakeron Fadden.
In this story, humans are suffering because they lack fire which is in the possession of a group of cave-dwelling monsters who kill those who try to acquire it. When a young Indian boy spares the life of a fox she, in turn, agrees to help the boy acquire fire for his people. After change in identities and some tricks, the boy steals the fire from the monsters in the cave, runs off, and with the help of the fox avoids the pursuit of the monsters, learns to make fire, and brings it to his people.
The trees also help in bringing fire to humans but, as the fox tells the boy as fire ts transmitted to humans, "It won't be easy, you must also have fire in the heart."
The story is simply and beautifully told with fire-filled illustrations of the cave, the wilderness, and four truly fearsome monsters.
In an Authors' Note following the story, the Bruchacs discuss the origins of the tale. They stress how the Indian story shows continuity with nature and the connection between humans and animals as opposed to stories in the Western tradition which see fire coming from outside nature as the gift of the gods.
Children ages four and above and their adult readers will enjoy this story, which will provoke questions and discussions. The book is published by Wisdom Tales which features stories from around the world with spiritual and religious themes for children. I have learned a great deal from these stories over the years. Wisdom Tales kindly send me a copy of "First Fire" to review.
Robin Friedman
This lovely children's picture book, "First Fire" tells a story of how humans acquired fire long ago. The story is a combination of different Indian traditions from the East to the West coasts but with the perspective of the Algonkian peoples who lived on the Atlantic coasts and inland of the the United States and Canada. The award-winning author Joseph Bruchac and hs son James Bruchac retell this story with illustrations by David Kanietakeron Fadden.
In this story, humans are suffering because they lack fire which is in the possession of a group of cave-dwelling monsters who kill those who try to acquire it. When a young Indian boy spares the life of a fox she, in turn, agrees to help the boy acquire fire for his people. After change in identities and some tricks, the boy steals the fire from the monsters in the cave, runs off, and with the help of the fox avoids the pursuit of the monsters, learns to make fire, and brings it to his people.
The trees also help in bringing fire to humans but, as the fox tells the boy as fire ts transmitted to humans, "It won't be easy, you must also have fire in the heart."
The story is simply and beautifully told with fire-filled illustrations of the cave, the wilderness, and four truly fearsome monsters.
In an Authors' Note following the story, the Bruchacs discuss the origins of the tale. They stress how the Indian story shows continuity with nature and the connection between humans and animals as opposed to stories in the Western tradition which see fire coming from outside nature as the gift of the gods.
Children ages four and above and their adult readers will enjoy this story, which will provoke questions and discussions. The book is published by Wisdom Tales which features stories from around the world with spiritual and religious themes for children. I have learned a great deal from these stories over the years. Wisdom Tales kindly send me a copy of "First Fire" to review.
Robin Friedman
Displaying 1 of 1 review