When I wrote my earlier post on John Smelcer’s The Trap, I accepted the truth of the description of the author on its dust jacket as being “of Ahtna Athabaska descent.” In doing so, I’d forgotten an earlier discussion on the child_lit listserv in which Debbie Reese raised the question of whether or not this [...]
Filed under: John Smelcer, aboriginality, alternating narratives, children's and young adult literature, observing with alarm, race | 2 Comments »
Smelcer, John. The Trap. New York: Henry Holt, 2006.
In alternating narratives, a grandfather and grandson in the cold winter of the Alaskan wilderness confront different kinds of traps. The old man is your archetypal old Indian of book after book and movie after movie–a fairly placid and calm old man close to nature and full [...]
Filed under: John Smelcer, aboriginality, alternating narratives, children's and young adult literature, race, variation | 4 Comments »
