Four Seasons of Corn: A Winnebago Tradition - Softcover

Grade 3-6. In an effort to continue the traditions of the Hochunk (Winnebago) people, Hunter follows 12-year-old Russell through the year as he learns about his people's special relationship with corn. Russell is a hard-working student in St. Paul, Minnesota, fond of computers, hockey, and football. The cover photograph shows a thoroughly modern boy hoeing in a corn field, dressed in shorts, T-shirt, black tennies, and backward hat?illustrating the balance between the contemporary and traditional that Russell is learning to live, under the careful guidance of his elders. The boy and his family raise their corn on a friend's farm some distance south, where they all participate in the cycle of growing and experience the bounty of the earth. The author uses Indian terms and words throughout the text and explains each briefly without interrupting the flow of the prose: "The next time Russell visits the farm, it is July, called Wa-xoch-wee-dda, or the corn tasseling moon." The book contains legends and history, as well as detailed information about tending, harvesting, and drying the corn. Nearly every page has a large full-color photograph or two that complement the text and make this book particularly inviting. Four Seasons of Corn does much to enlighten readers and dispel stereotypes.?Lee Bock, Brown County Public Libraries, Green Bay, WI
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A congenial mix of reportage--marred by disorganization--on the cultivation of corn and its importance in American Indian traditions. After a somewhat disjointed, irrelevant preface, Hunter portrays a family that upholds the traditions of the Winnebago Indians throughout the harvest and preparation of flint corn- -multicolored ``Indian corn.'' A thoroughly modern 12-year-old, Russell, straddles two worlds, and benefits from both; in fact, all the children's lives are intriguingly integrated between city living in St. Paul, Minnesota, and their activities in the country, from their farm labors to the tribal activities such as the ceremonial dance celebrating the harvest. The text does not progress smoothly from topic to topic and is sometimes repetitious; Hunter writes about Russell in the third-person, and, by referring to herself in the full-color photographs as ``Russell's grandmother,'' unnecessarily distances herself from the narrative. However, the abundant photographs assist greatly in providing a window onto the subjects' lives, well-chosen and framed to capture and glorify the subject. (map, glossary) (Nonfiction. 8-12) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.