Louise Erdrich: Publications and Criticism Joe Buenker, M.S., Academic Librarian

 

The Birchbark House (1999)

 

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Book Details: The Birchbark House

"Uncorrected advance proof" issued by Hyperion Books for Children in 1999.

First commercially published by Hyperion Books for Children in July 1999.

The 1999 Hyperion Books for Children cloth edition (ISBN-10: 0786803002; ISBN-13: 9780786822416) and jacket design by Christine Kettner; beadwork depicted on jacket by Vicki St. Clair. Jacket illustration by Erdrich. Backcover photograph of Erdrich by Marc Norberg. Illustrations by Erdrich.

A 2000 cloth (ISBN-10: 078622178X; ISBN-13: 9780786221783) edition was published by Thorndike Press.

A 2000 paperback (ISBN-10: 0439203406; ISBN-13: 9780439203401) edition was published by Scholastic.

The 2002 paperback edition (ISBN-10: 0786814543; ISBN-13: 9780786814541) is from Hyperion Paperbacks for Children.

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Subject Headings Assigned: The Birchbark House

Ojibwa Indians -- Juvenile fiction
Ojibwa Indians -- Fiction
Indians of North America -- Superior, Lake, Region -- Fiction
Islands -- Fiction
Seasons -- Fiction

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Summary: The Birchbark House

"Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe, lives through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on an island in Lake Superior in 1847. For as long as Omakayas can remember, she and her family have lived on the land her people call the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker. Although the chimookoman, white people, encroach more and more on their land, life continues much as it always has. Every summer the family builds a new birchbark house; every fall they go to ricing camp to harvest and feast; they move to the cedar log house before the first snows arrive, and celebrate the end of the long, cold winters at maple-sugaring camp. In between, Omakayas fights with her annoying little brother, Pinch, plays with the adorable baby, Neewo, and tries to be grown-up like her beautiful older sister, Angeline. But the satisfying rhythms of their lives are shattered when a visitor comes to their lodge one winter night, bringing with him an invisible enemy that will change things forever."

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Table of Contents: The Birchbark House

The Girl from Spirit Island

NEEBIN (Summer)
1. The Birchbark House
2. Old Tallow
3. The Return
4. Andeg
Deydey's Ghost Story

DAGWAGING (Fall)
5. Fishtail's Pipe
6. Pinch
7. The Move
8. First Snow

BIBOON (Winter)
9. The Blue Ferns
Grandma's Story: Fishing the Dark Side of the Lake
10. The Visitor
11. Hunger
Nanabozho and Muskrat Make An Earth

ZEEGWUN (Spring)
12. Maple Sugar Time
13. One Horn's Protection
14. Full Circle

Note on the Ojibwa Language

Glossary and pronounciation guide of Ojibwa terms

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Blurbs: The Birchbark House

Blurb Appearing on Back Cover of The Porcupine Year

"Readers will want to follow this family for many seasons to come."
Publishers Weekly

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