Maple Moon
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Overview
Winner of The World Guild Canadian Writing Awards
- Children's Book category (2006)
To create this enchanting fictional account of how maple syrup might have been first discovered. Connie Brummel Crook borrows elements from some of the many prevailing traditional folk takes.
In finding this new source of nourishment, her young protagonist, a native boy named Rides the Wind, is able to help his people through a harsh winter.
His pride also boosts his confidence in spite of a physical disability, and he is able to rise above the cruel taunts of other children.
Imagines how maple syrup may have been discovered.
Synopsis
Winner of The World Guild Canadian Writing Awards
- Children's Book category (2006)
To create this enchanting fictional account of how maple syrup might have been first discovered. Connie Brummel Crook borrows elements from some of the many prevailing traditional folk takes.
In finding this new source of nourishment, her young protagonist, a native boy named Rides the Wind, is able to help his people through a harsh winter.
His pride also boosts his confidence in spite of a physical disability, and he is able to rise above the cruel taunts of other children.
Children's Literature
Rides the Wind, a young Missisauga boy, discovers maple syrup and thereby prevents his tribe from starving. Because an injury that Rides the Wind received as a child makes him limp, many other children in the village ostracize him and call him Limping Leg. With his only friend Nimoosh, the Alaskan Husky who transports the boy on a sled, Rides the Wind leaves the village to be alone, and his observation of a squirrel leads him to the sweet water of Ninautik, the Maple Tree. Rendered in oils primarily in earth tones, this picture book offers an entertaining porquoi tale that also highlights some important cultural ideas from the Missisauga culture. When Rides the Wind leads his father and the elders to Ninautik, his father accuses the boy of lying when the tree does not produce immediately. The chief, however, decides that if Rides the Wind waited all day for the sweet water, so should they. And they do. Focusing on the power that children have to improve the lives of those around them, this well-written and attractive picture book will make a positive contribution to lessons on trees, folklore, and Native American cultures.