Turtle Island ABC: A Gathering of Native American Symbols

by Barry Moser, Cara Moser (Illustrator)

An alphabet book of traditional Native American symbols.

Genres: Picture Books

36 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1994

About the author

Barry Moser (born 1940) is a renowned artist, most famous as a printmaker and illustrator of numerous works of literature.

Reviews

[Megan Willome]

Turtle Island ABC: A Gathering of Native American Symbols Gerald Hausman

I have a particular fondness for alphabet books, and I picked up this one while working on an article about Indigenous people of Texas. The entry for X gave me a way to frame the piece.

[Rachel]

According to the author Gerald Hausman, Native Americans refer to themselves as The People, and North America is called Turtle Island. So Turtle Island ABC is a listing of "traditional Native American symbols," such as C for Corn or B for Buffalo. The descriptions for each symbol is very respective of Native American cultures and I love Cara Moser's pastel on board illustrations. One of my favorites is H for Hummingbird, with the bright green hummingbird illustration. "I am HUMMINGBIRD, the medicine man. I ring a little bell when I come around to visit. I make all the other birds well. I fill acorn shells with medicine that I make from dewdrops. I sing the old, old songs that The People have forgotten. I am Hummingbird, the medicine man."