This is one of the first non-fiction books I have blogged about so far. I found this book to be very factual in the textual information but the illustrations tell a different story. All of the "Native People" in this book,(Include all of the following: Native Americans, Aztec's and Mayans), are wearing some sort of feathers on their head. I think this is a silly misconception that all "Native People" of this land (and Mexico) wore head dresses comprised of feathers. This book definitely plays into the easy stereotyping of Native Americans and other cultures such as the Aztec and Mayans. There are also some inaccurate depictions of farming practices through the illustrations in the book. Growing up on a farm this may bother me more than the average person but the pictures in a book tell a story too and in this book they are not entirely correct. I would definitely use this book for factual knowledge because it is quite accurate from what I can tell, but I would be sure to explain some of the pictures to children if I ever read it to them.
Travis,
ReplyDeleteYou really covered a lot of information in a short post. You are dead on in regards to all of the indians wearing feathers and those who don't know about farming. The fact that you can look past some of the offending parts of this text and use it for its factual merit is great. I have not read a non-fiction book for any of my posts yet, but this one sound interesting.
In my social Studies Methods class I am doing a report over a lesson called the "Neighborhood Garden". I was planning on using this book, just because of the title and haven'y had the time to actually look through it. I will now be taking a closer look and probably picking up a different book as to not stereotype in my lesson.
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