Seeing the Circle

by Joseph Bruchac

The author tells how he learned about his own Native American background, how he became a writer, and how he spends his days.

Genres: Native American

32 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1999

About the author

Joseph 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.

Reviews

[Nicolewinter2011 · Rating 4 out of 5]

title, author, illustrator, publisher, year originally published. Approximate Interest Level / Reading Level

Photos by: John Christopher Fine
Publisher: Richard C. Owen Publishers, Inc.
Year published: 1999
Reading Level: Grades 2-4
Interest Level: Grades 1-5

This picture book auto-biography of Native American author, Joseph Bruchac, has clearly stated text. It is not vague like some picture book biographies are. He doesn't dig as deep as in a chapter book (but he has another book for that), but he goes beyond the surface of his life's events. The author shares what his life is like as part of his daily cycle, as well as how it changes during the different seasons. His message of seeing his life in this circle links to his Native American heritage, which he explains in the text. I enjoyed reading it as an adult and started thinking about how I could share it with my second graders, as well as feeling envious about his life. Could I lead a life like that? He speaks to the reader with simplicity and sincerity. He states questions that students have asked him when he has gone into schools to speak. He then shares answers with the reader.

I think this book would be great for the classroom when talking about the writing process with children, as well as teaching children to be proud of who they are and write about what they know. The symbolism of the Native American circle he describes leaves me wanting to do more research, because the use of its meaning in the classroom could be powerful. I also personally want to see if I can find some artwork out there related to the image to have in my home. I found it very interesting. (If I've peeked your interest, you'll have to get the book to find out more about it.)

[Arsenio Richardson]

Right now I am currently taking a Native American studies course at school. This book was really good for me because learning about different cultures is an interest of mine. This book is nice because if want to learn about this person it does not 200 pages. It has actually real life photos that go along with story to give the reader a better understanding. Since Native Americans were on this land first it is important that our youth learn more about them. Especially, in the Dakota areas where live currently. This book talks about history, writing, family and tradition.