Pushing up the Sky: Seven Native American Plays for Children

by Joseph Bruchac, Teresa Flavin (Illustrator)

From acclaimed Native American storyteller Joseph Bruchac comes a collection of seven lively plays for children to perform, each one adapted from a different traditional Native tale. Filled with heroes and tricksters, comedy and drama, these entertaining plays are a wonderful way to bring Native cultures to life for young people. Each play has multiple parts that can be adjusted to suit the size of a particular group and includes simple, informative suggestions for props, scenery, and costumes that children can help to create. Introductory notes and beautiful, detailed illustrations add to young readers' understanding of the seven Native nations whose traditions have inspired the plays.

Genres: Native American, Plays, History, Childrens

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

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

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

These short plays, for school, or after school activities, for 4-H,or other youth groups for young-ish children each are about a different myth or folktale from a different region and tribal band. Each playlet, the first one is nine or so pages long, with beautiful illustrations and suggestions for how groups and children can make appropriate costumes and props.
Recommended by Kate Reid from Battenkill Books on 8/27/19 on WAMC. I borrowed this from inter library loan.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the dedication page Bruchac very gently asks that educators and performers respect the staging and costume suggestions. Good.

So, represented are Tlingit, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Zuni, Snohomish, Ojibway, and Abenaki.

Overall I really enjoyed this and would love to use it in a classroom. My favorite story is Cannibal Monster, from the Tlingit; if only the people would have listened to Raven's advice!

I also very much appreciate that we get a brief introduction to the seven "tribal groups" represented. Bruchac gives advice about how to be respectful and accurate; for example, don't mix & match Tlingit clan symbols on their clothing.

I also really liked the art. The stories are pared to their essence, though, and a good teacher will use this book as only a small part of their teaching.

[Tiffani · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fun book of folklore presents seven short plays perfect for an elementary school classroom. Native American storyteller, Joseph Bruchac, has adapted the plays from native tales that express a variety of moral or life lessons. Included are stories from the Abenaki, Ojibway, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Snohomish, Tlingit, and Zuni tribes. In addition to providing stage directions, Bruchac gives prop, scenery, and costume suggestions making it easy to prepare and present these meaningful plays. Teresa Flavin’s ink line drawings add character and excitement as readers peruse the scripts. This book provides a creative and engaging method for introducing students to Native American cultures.

[Jenna Schuler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This tall tale genre book explains a story about Native American's and give a sense of background. I enjoyed reading this book and the cultural difference I have from this book, when I was growing up I never heard stories like this so I think its great for students to read these. I enjoyed all the elements given within this book because it helped me picture the story and imagine the Native tale. The main characters was a Native tribe and explain their beliefs.

[Shannon Futrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is written by a Native American Story teller. This book is a collection of seven plays for students to perform. This book is great for the classroom because it helps students have fun, while learning something new.

[Jbondandrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how these Indigenous stories have been adapted into plays for children.

[Becky Tri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Work read for the new W and W curriculum. Will have a lot of great teaching opportunities with these short stories

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of plays for children to preform retelling aboriginal myths and folklore. The stories are a combination of origin lore and cautionary tales, reminiscent of Aesop’s fables. Each play includes the tribe from which the story comes, as well as details about the people group. There are prop and costume suggestions, which include easy to find or make items, which most people will have in their households. These suggestions are appropriate to the originating people group.
The plays are designed to work with a group of children. The smallest cast required is eight, and there are suggestions for how to make each play work for a large group of students.
Several of the plays are based from non-Canadian peoples.


Gluskabe and Old Man Winter: Abenaki
Gluskabe goes on a quest to bring summer and defeat Old Man Winter. He travels to the summer kingdom, where he fools the summer people and brings back a piece of summer, ensuring that Old Man Winter cannot keep a grip on the world all year long.

Star Sisters: Ojibway/Chippewa
Two girl marry stars and go to live with the sky people who spend their nights looking down through holes in the sky so that the earth people may see their faces. Unhappy the sisters ask to return to earth. The sky people lower them into an eagle’s nest, a wolverine helps them down wishing to make them his servants, but they trick him and escape with the help of the trees.

Possum’s Tail: Cherokee
The possum is so boastful of his beautiful tail that the other animals trick him and remove all the hair from his tail. When he discovers his ugly tail he is so ashamed he plays dead every time another creature comes near.

Wihio's Duck Dance: Cheyenne
Wihio is hungry. He tricks some ducks by inviting them to come dance at his lodge. He tells them to dance with their eyes closed while he drums. He snatches them one by one to eat. When a nervous duck peaks all but two escape. While the two ducks are cooking he climbs a tree. A coyote steals the meat and Wihio goes hungry.

Pushing up the Sky: Snohomish
The earth people are tired of bumping their heads on the sky. Working together as one, they use sticks and push up the sky. In the process they poke holes in the sky, and every night to this day light leaks through those holes.

The Cannibal Monster: Tlingit
The people are very afraid of the cannibal monster. Following Raven’s instructions they kill him. When they burn his body against Raven’s advice, he turns a swarm of mosquitos and continues to bother people to this day.

The Strongest One: Zuni
An ant sets out to discover who is the strongest. He learns that everything is stronger than something else and everything has a weakness.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pushing Up the Sky is a really fun piece of literature. It is a collection of plays. Each play tells how to re-create a set for the play by using everyday household items. The plays provide many roles that can incorporate all students. I really like this text because each play has a different message or life lesson that is conveyed. The play is about how the sky, when it was first created, was good but people were having problems because it was not high enough. The Chiefs of all the tribes came together to discuss the matter. Then they needed to work together to solve the problems despite their own personal feelings about how the matter should be solved.

Students can work on using expression. Also a reading strategy to be reinforced with this is cause and effect and sequencing. This book provides opportunities to display their reading abilities, learn more about the Native American culture, and has a positive message that can be applied to all.

[Aby]

Read 1 of 7 plays

[Brooke]

I loved it so much.

[Kathy Garner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joseph Bruchac gives suggestions for props, scenery, and costumes for these Native American plays.

[Marian Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun book.