ISBN: 068971730X
PLOT SUMMARY
HER SEVEN BROTHERS is a retelling of a Cheyenne legend. A young girl who has no brothers or sisters lives with her parents. But she never felt alone because she could speak to the birds and animals. "She understood the spirits of all things." She learned to embroider deer and buffalo skin robes with dyed porcupine quills. She became quite skilled and was admired by everyone for her beautiful designs.
One day she began to make several shirts and pairs of moccasins. When she had completed seven sets she told her mother that she made the clothes for seven brothers "who live by themselves far in the north country where the cold wind comes from...they have no sister..I will ask them to be my brothers." She set out and found the brothers and gave them the clothes and became their sister.
Then one day the chief of the Buffalo nation demands to have the girl, but her brothers refuse to let her go. The Buffalo stampede and the youngest brother shoots an arrow up in the air and a pine tree appears. The girl and her brothers climb the tree. When the buffalo start to tear the tree down, the young brother shoots another arrow and the pine tree grows and they climb higher and "they were carried far away up among the stars...and there they all jumped down from the branches onto the boundless prairies of the world above."
The book concludes with the message that the girl and her seven brothers are still here. "They are the Seven Stars in the northern sky, which we call the Big Dipper."
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Paul Goble displays an admiration and reverence for the Native American culture as he retells this legend. The authenticity is evident not only in the respectful tone of the storytelling, but also in the attention to detail in the illustrations. Rather than taking a dramatic approach in describing the events, the tale is told in the quiet tone of a tribal storyteller. The author references museum pieces for the designs used in the ink and watercolor paintings.
REVIEW EXCERPTS
Publishers Weekly
"This is a spry telling, dignified but lively."
School Library Journal
"Once again Goble's admiration for the Plains Indians has been combined with his considerable gifts as a painter to produce a seamless whole."
CONNECTIONS
*This book could be used in conjunction with Social Studies lessons on the Plains Indians of the central United States.
*Other books by Paul Goble: THE GIRL WHO LOVED WILD HORSES (1978), THE GIFT OF THE SACRED DOG (1980), BUFFALO WOMAN (1984)
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