A Braid of Lives: Native American Childhood

by Neil Philip

This moving collection of first-person narratives celebrates the individuality and variety of the Native American experience. Men and women representing many Native American groups speak about childhood and growing up—games and rites of passage, education and learning, tradition and change. This companion volume to Neil Philip’s acclaimed IN A SACRED MANNER I LIVE is touching and dramatic, easily accessible to young readers, who will identify with its celebration of universal childhood experiences. Introduction, indexes of speakers/writers and Indian nations, suggestions for further reading, source notes.

81 pages, Hardcover

First published August 21, 2000

About the author

Neil Philip is a writer, folklorist and poet. He is married to the artist Emma Bradford, and lives in the Cotswolds, England. Neil loves words, poetry, and the art of storytelling in all its forms. Among his many books are A Fine Anger, Victorian Village Life, The Cinderella Story, The Penguin Book of English Folktales, Mythology (with Philip Wilkinson), The Great Mystery, War and the Pity of War, The New Oxford Book of Childrens Verse, The Tale of Sir Gawain, Horse Hooves & Chicken Feet, and The Adventures of Odysseus. Neil has contributed to numerous journals, including The Times, and Signal: Approaches to Childrens Books, and has also written for stage, screen, and radio. His work has won numerous awards and honours, including the Aesop Award of the American Folklore Society and the Literary Criticism Book Award of the Childrens Literature Association. Outside of the storied world, Neil is passionate about cats, art, music, France, food & wine, and friendship.

Reviews

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book for upper elementary/middle schoolers. It consists of first person narratives of (western) Indians speaking as adults of childhood memories. The stories range from the late 1800s to mid-twentieth century. The accompanying pictures are sometimes of the narrators and sometimes photos by well-known photographers of life in those times.

[Chapter · Rating 5 out of 5]

COPIED FROM GOODREADS SITE: This moving collection of first-person narratives celebrates the individuality and variety of the Native American experience. Men and women representing many Native American groups speak about childhood and growing up—games and rites of passage, education and learning, tradition and change.

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a collection of writings by American Indians remembering their childhoods from about 100 to 150 years ago. Almost every other page is a huge black and white photograph of American Indian kids and parents. The stories and pictures are both amazing! There are funny stories about games and about getting in trouble, but also stories about what was most important to them and their families. I thought it was interesting how in almost every story the kids just wanted to be able to do what the grownups and the bigger kids were doing, and they would work hard until they could run as fast or ride a horse as well the others. If you are interested in how kids lived in the past in America, this is the book for you.

[Mano (Leslie) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed the accounts of Native peoples of their childhood memories at the beginning of colonial occupation and before. The strong values and teachings of the elders, the heartbreaking stories of colonization, and the vivid imagery, will help adults, children and adolescents to understand the amazing plight of those indigenous to their beloved homeland, this U.S. of A.

[Eden Silverfox · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Braid of Lives contains stories from the childhood of Native people such as Black Elk, Luther Standing Bear, Gertrude Bonnin.

This book has some good stories. Some were stories of lessons they learned as children, games they played, some scary experiences. It was a good book, along with nice pictures.