White Deer of AutumnCritiques

This native american book was a little longer, so perhaps not suitable for a read aloud to children that lack the patience. I did enjoy the story as it shows a side of the native american world.

This was another annotation I wrote in 2000 for Dr. Walling's class during library school. I saw Mr. Horn speak at my university while I was an undergraduate. His speech affected me at an impressionable time in my life, and I credit him as an early influence in opening my eyes past that point where mainstream American society typically turns away.

"Wampanoag activist, teacher, and holder of a Great Mystery pipe weaves insights gained from love and fatherhood. He emphasizes living in harmony with Mother Earth and preserving Native American culture and religion."

This book about how to define and understand death is also full of tradition, including but not limited to the placing of fish remains into a planting. The rotting fish helps feed the plant, perpetuating the "circle of life."

Seeing as I took one of Gabriel's creative writing classes and he is one of the coolest guys on the planet - I really wanted to love this. Let me also add the fact that I absolutely did love Native Heart.

This was just a little too surreal for me. I read it with a friend and we just kept saying, "Wait, wasn't he just young?" "I thought he was on the beach?" There's definitely some cool stuff in here and the message is one I whole-heartedly agree with, but it just didn't seem very cohesive and I was lost often.

So while I will still be reading other books from Gabriel Horn in the future I can't really recommend this one.