I’m thrilled you are reading my book TRUTH WITH A CAPITAL T and hope you find a good friend in Maebelle T. Earl and her cousin, Isaac. The summer between 5th grade and 6th grade is a big one. It was for me and it especially is for Maebelle. You see, right before Truth with a Capital T begins Maebelle takes a test to see if she will still be in the Gifted and Talented program when she moves to Middle School from Elementary School. The test is h-a-r-d, hard – so hard that Maebelle doesn’t make the middle school G&T program!
Maebelle feels terrible. She has to work harder than anyone she knows. Her entire family is super smart and talented. Her parents write books and lead seminars and her grandparents, well they too are pretty famous. My grandma sold cosmetics at Walgreen’s and I remember putting on the sample lipsticks she gave me when I was a girl. I loved those lipsticks almost as much as I loved my grandma. But Maebelle’s grandmother and grandfather don’t have ordinary jobs. They are Honky Tonk LEGENDS. And they drive around in an old Winnebago that plays their most famous hit: The Hoedown Showdown.
So, Maebelle is none too happy when her newly adopted cousin Isaac, a 4th grader from Chicago shows up in Tweedle, Georgia where she is staying for the summer. Isaac is talented—way talented. In fact, Gramps calls Isaac a trumpet playing prodigy!
Like Isaac, I played the trumpet when I was in Middle School and like Maebelle, I didn’t have a musical bone in my body. I practiced my scales though and I played “Hot Cross Buns” with the best of them. I tried and tried and tried and practiced and practiced and practiced. I loved jazz music and was astonished at the abilities of musicians like Dizzy Gillespie. In fact, I made myself dizzy trying to puff out my cheeks and play like he did.
But, truly, Isaac and his trumpet playing is the least of Maebelle’s worries. Maebelle and Isaac stay with Granny and Gramps in their newly inherited antebellum home. Isaac tells Maebelle, this means her family once owned slaves.
Maebelle is outraged and sets out to prove Isaac w-r-o-n-g, wrong. Only thing is, she has to break in to the locked wing and go against Gramps’s wishes to do so. But Maebelle has a stubborn streak (I wonder where she gets that!) and won’t give up until she uncovers each and every secret buried in the Earl family locked wing.
I loved spending time with Maebelle and Isaac. I loved writing about Georgia and Illinois, both places I lived when I was a kid. And I truly hope you enjoy TRUTH WITH A CAPITAL T and the mystery that is history!
My best made me regular, not gifted or talented. I was normal, as in nothing special. (4)
As a result of the journey to discover family truths buried under centuries of racial misunderstandings, family secrets, and fledgling new friendships, Maebelle T. Earl learns that she is, in fact, gifted, talented, and remarkably special in every way.
Download the Teacher’s Guide below to enjoy discussions, Reader’s Theatre performances, games, recipes, crafts, and videos all designed to bring the rich cultural vibrancy of Hegedus’Truth with a Capital T to life.
In the guide, the novel is divided in to 6-week study sections and is fully annotated with the academic standards for the state of Texas.
Books celebrate family and they also help us understand. No family is free from problems. Some families are torn apart because of them.
For the older reader, STAR IN THE FOREST by Laura Resau is a contemporary novel that catches your heart in the first chapter. One day Papa is pulled over for speeding. Mama cries again and again to family, to friends, Deportado! Deportado! Papa is deported to Mexico. His daughter, his little star, Zitlally, Estrella, a descendant from the Aztecs, first withdraws, but then discovers a secret source of strength in the “forest.”
Laura Resau has created a poignant story about the strength of children and their families to survive.
ONE SQUARE INCH by Claudia Mills shows, with hope and humor, how children cope when something is very wrong with a parent. Carly and Cooper are frustrated when their mother’s sadness means she spends more time sleeping than being with them. But then they are frightened by her sudden change to maniacal energy.
What does it mean, bipolar disorder? Can an imaginary land, Inchland, offer a pretend place of safety? This book offers a window into a home where children learn that things are not always “okay.”
ReaderKidZ is pleased to welcome Joseph Bruchac to November’s Beyond Boundaries!
ReaderKidZ: Why do you write? Where do your stories come from?
Joseph Bruchac: I write because it brings me satisfaction on so many levels. For one, a part of me is so connected to the act of writing that it is a much a part of my life as breathing. For another, I’m able to communicate with others in a truly meaningful fashion, to share things I care about, to entertain and to teach.
My stories come from things I’ve read and heard, from people I meet, from my family and friends, and from a place within me that sometimes speaks to me–at times when I’m writing it’s as if I’m taking dictation.
ReaderKidZ: How do you choose your projects?
Joseph Bruchac: Sometimes, people I’ve met inspire me to tell a story–one that is little known, like that of the code talkers. Or it may be a story that has been poorly told or left out the American Indian point of view. That’s how my novels about Pocahontas and Sacajawea came to be. Other time, editors ask me to write a certain book. And sometimes, a story (or a song or a poem) comes to me in a dream. I wake up, go to my desk, and start to write.
ReaderKidZ: When a child picks up one of your books, what do you hope will happen?
Joseph Bruchac: I hope for only two things. That she or he will find the story interesting enough to keep reading it, and that they’ll gain something from the experience.
ReaderKidZ: How do you hope teachers, parents, and librarians will use your books in schools?
Joseph Bruchac:I leave that up to them. But I do know that some have told me that my themes often tie into lessons about tolerance and character development and that certain of my books tie in well to the teaching of history. I’ve also had some of my books used to deal with bullying, such as my novels THE WAY and EAGLE SONG.
ReaderKidZ: How have the children you’ve met influenced your writing?
Joseph Bruchac: My own kids turned me into a storyteller. I first began telling stories to them when they were little–more than 30 years ago. When I go to schools, more than one question from a student has led me to write a book. When I wrote my novel THE WAY, a high school teacher friend of mine and his class helped me enormously by answering some questions so I could see things better from their viewpoint.
ReaderKidZ: We’d like to ask you about a few specific books. For instance, you contributed a story to TRICKSTER, NATIVE AMERICAN TALES: A GRAPHIC COLLECTION. The book is funny, engaging, visual, and an unusual presentation of Native American Tales. How does it feel to see traditional tales “gone graphic?”
Joseph Bruchac: I’ve read and loved comics since I was young. I still read them. Ithink of graphic novels as an important art form and I’m very pleased my work is appearing in that format now. I was delighted with the ways the various artists “saw” the stories, especially the way Raccoon came to life in our tale. The variety of storytelling voices and artists in TRICKSTER is a great reminder of the range and diversity of our various tribal cultural traditions.
My novel DAWN LAND (adapted by Will Davis) was just published as a graphic novel by First Second Books. I’ve written a second one for them for which they are now trying to find an illustrator.
ReaderKidZ: Your picture book biography, RACHEL CARSON, PRESERVING A SENSE OF WONDER, is one of your few biographies that is not about a Native American. How did you happen to write about Rachel Carson?
Joseph Bruchac: I’ve admired and been inspired by Rachel Carson, as a person and a writer, since SILENT SPRING. I majored in Wildlife Conservation at Cornell University for three years before switching to English. I wrote the text first and then Tom (who is a close friend) did the paintings. This is one of those books I was asked to write by my friends at Fulcrum. I did so very gladly.
ReaderKidZ: Your book BUFFALO SONG, illustrated by Bill Farnsworth, was recently published by Lee and Low. Why did this book take you many years to complete?
Joseph Bruchac: I first heard the story of the “buffalo orphans” more than twenty years ago when I was in Montana doing work with the Stone Child Tribal College. I did several drafts as a picture book, working with my former editor Paula Wiseman before she left Harcourt, where it was under contract. (In fact, you’ll find it listed as a book in print under the title THE BUFFALO ORPHANS, even though it was never published. It also was listed later in one or two places as THE MAN WHO LOVED BUFFALO.)
Years passed and I was glad the book did not get published because I continued to learn more of the story, especially through the help of friends of mine at Salish Kootenai College. If I am telling a story about real people and real events, I feel it is my responsibility to get it right to the best of my ability and not make up or distort facts for any reason, even for “the sake of the story.” When the old contract expired, I started work on a different, and better informed, telling of the story
ReaderKidZ: Your book EAGLE SONGis the story of Danny Bigtree, who lives in the city but is homesick for his real home on the Mohawk reservation. Did your own boyhood experiences inspire you to write it?
Joseph Bruchac: I was, indeed, often teased and bullied when I was a child and being raised by my maternal grandparents. However, though that helped me sympathize with Danny, my experiences were very different from his. I was going to school in my own hometown. I was not coming from a reservation to the big city. Danny is based on several Iroquois and Abenaki kids I knew at the time I wrote it.
ReaderKidZ: Tell us about one of your books for the older reader who is interested in history, war, or adventure.
Joseph Bruchac: MARCH TOWARD THE THUNDER is a Civil War book that gives readers new insight into many untold stories and heroes through the eyes of a young Abenaki soldier. I wanted to write a story about war without glorifying it or falsifying history. I’ve been fascinated by the Civil War since I was a small child and toured some of the Virginia battlefields with my elders. Also, there has been almost nothing written about the American Indian role in the Civil War. The story of the Irish Brigade is almost as little known.
There is much in the Civil war that we can still learn from that is inspiring and poignant. It’s a reminder of a common humanity even in the bitter experience of battle. And because my own great-grandfather was one of those American Indian soldiers, I wanted to share this story. I hope readers come to understand about hope even in the midst of terrible conflict, and the importance of learning to see others as equally human, equally deserving of respect.
Joseph Bruchac’s upcoming books include RABBIT’S SNOW DANCE, a picture book from Dial (co-authored with his son James); DRAGON CASTLE, again from Dial, a fantasy YA novel based in ancient Slovakia; and WOLF MARK, an American Indian werewolf YA paranormal thriller from Lee& Low’s new Tu Books imprint.
As Thanksgiving draws near, what better time to rethink the books you share with children about the history of our country and the role of Native Americans in it. You can encourage critical thinking skills as you discuss the history of Native Americans, a history that began long before Columbus arrived on our shore.
Why not begin with the proclamation President Obama made on October 29th, which closes with, “I call upon all American to commemorate this month with appropriate programs and activities, and to celebrate November 26, 2010, as Native American Heritage Day.” ?
To find authentic, contemporary books, programs, and activities, look at the following websites:
Bring the following passages from Park’s A Long Walk to Waterto life by making a few hand-on projects.
“Salva was amazed by what he saw in the fishing community. It was the first place in their weeks of walking that there was an abundance of food. The villagers ate a lot of fish, of course, and hippo and crocodile meat as well. But even more impressive were the number of crops they grew: cassava, sugar cane, yams…It was easy to grow food when there was a whole river to water the crops! (47)
And…
“Every time Salva delivered a load of reeds, he would pause for a few moments to admire the skills of the boat builders. The long reeds were laid out in neat bunches. Each end of a bunch would be tied together tightly. Then the bunch of reeds was pulled apart in the middle to from a hollow, and the two sides were tied all along their length to make a basic boat shape…Salva watched, fascinated, as little by little the curve of a prow and low sides grew from the piles of reeds. (44)
Kids can build the lush banks of the Nile River using a kitty litter pan or a pie tin, sand, potting soil, foil, parakeet seed, and a nice collection of rocks and pebbles. Make the Nile River a little bit treacherous by adding some blood-thirsty plastic crocodiles in the water. Yikes!
And for the reed boats, all that is needed is a fistful of dried grass tied together at each end with some thin string.
Simple things to dramatize these words… Finally, the boats pulled up to an island in the middle of the river. This was where the fishermen of the Nile lived and worked (47)…and where your children learn and grow.
A LONG WALK TO WATER by Linda Sue Park is based on the true story of Salva Dut, who, as a 11-year old child fled Southern Sudan to Ethiopia, and later led 1500 “Lost Boys” to a refugee camp in Kenya. At the age of 22, Salva was relocated to the United States.
Park’s story of Salva’s survival through war, loss, hunger and thirst is most of all about the amazing power of the human spirit to survive and bring hope to others. Today Salva Dut leads the non-profit organization, Water for Sudan he founded in 2004.
bone in my body. I practiced my scales though and I played “Hot Cross Buns” with the best of them. I tried and tried and tried and practiced and practiced and practiced. I loved jazz music and was astonished at the abilities of musicians like Dizzy Gillespie. In fact, I made myself dizzy trying to puff out my cheeks and play like he did.
