translator (from the Portuguese): Jane Springer
illustrator: Laurabeatriz
Groundwood Books / House of Anansi Press, 1996
grades 3-up
Munduruku, Brazilian
On the cover we
see a young Munduruku boy, secure in his Amazon rainforest home, clearly a part
of his Indigenous world. He knows what he comes from and his smiling, confident
expression—along with the monkey comfortably perched on his head—invite the young
reader to visit.
Tales of the Amazon: How the Munduruku Indians Live
is divided into three parts—each told differently, and each related to the
others.
In Part
1, “The Tale of the Boy Who Didn’t Know How to Dream,” the pajé (healer) names an
infant boy Kaxi—“the moon that shines on humanity,” and will groom him to be
the healer and spiritual guide to his people. In his training, Kaxi learns to
“listen to the voices of our ancestors who speak to us in dreams.” He also learns
about the importance of the struggle against outsiders who are damaging the
rainforest. Finally, through a prophetic dream he learns how to “guide his
people toward their future.” Young readers might giggle at the illustrations of
people without clothes on; this could be an opportunity for teachers to
challenge all kinds of assumptions.
Part 2, “The
Indigenous Peoples of Brazil,” reads like a textbook. Short sections include,
among others, “Indigenous Lands,” “Linguistic Diversity,” “Cultural Diversity,”
“Marriage,” “Music,” “Work,” “Political Organization,” and “Indigenous Rights.”
This material is by no means a thorough exploration of any of these issues. But
since students at the 6th-grade level (and even below) are especially
interested in non-fiction about how people live, these sections can be used as
a starting point for student research.
Part 3,
“Chronicles and Testimonies,” are brief stories about Munduruku’s life, most of
it away from his people. Our favorites include Munduruku’s listening to his
grandfather’s stories and knowing that “those ancient myths say what cannot be
said”; witnessing a debate between a Christian pastor and a young Guarani man about
the nature of God; overhearing two women on a train arguing about whether or
not he is a “real Indian”; and responding, both to a teacher who asks him what
he does with mosquitoes, and to a child who wants to know if Indians eat
people.
Portraying the
luminous beauty of the Amazon rainforest and the interdependence of the animals
and humans who live there, Laurabeatriz’s richly textured, pastel-on-canvas
paintings, on a palette of browns, greens and blues, are dramatic and gorgeous.
Weaknesses in
the text include loaded terminology such as “hut,” “brave,” “warrior,“ “fire
water,” and “hostile.” This may have been a function of the translation from
the Portuguese. And the suggestions for further reading are dated and
unhelpful.
But for the most
part, Tales of the Amazon is
engagingly written, beautifully illustrated and nicely designed, with lots of
information that will resonate with young students and lead them to further
research. Recommended.
—Beverly Slapin
and María Cárdenas
(published 3/11/14)
(published 3/11/14)
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