BIBLIOGRAPHY
Noble Maillard, Kevin. 2019. Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story. Illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal. New York: Roaring Brook Press. ISBN:978-1626727465. Hoopladigital.com
PLOT SUMMARY
A diverse and joyful Native American family gathers to make fry bread as the narrator explains all that the tradition encompasses. The recipe reads like a poem, awakening the five senses, whilst incorporating the struggle, survival, and connection the treat brings to Native nations. Recipe and informative matter included.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Noble Maillard’s lyrical narrative paired with Martinez-Neal’s charming illustrations create the perfect balance for this informative record of Native American experience.
Martinez-Neal portrays Native American people authentically and diversely. The characters have varying shades of peach, tan, and black skin. The character’s hair also varies in styles, texture and color, as highlighted in the book cover. Featured are barrette pigtails, cornrows, straight blond, salt-and-pepper black, and curly bright-orange hair. All characters are dressed in contemporary clothing.
The diversity of the character’s physical features is reflective of contemporary time. This is a book published in 2019 for a 21st century audience. The narrative is universally relevant. Non-Natives are able to connect with the making of fry bread because every culture has a special food that they make on special occasions as a family. Fry Bread is food, but it is also “shape, sound, color, flavor, time, art, history, place, nation, everything, us,” and “you.” The narrative introduces non-Natives to Native American culture, its history, and reminds them: “we are still here.” The book reminds young Native American children that “fry bread is us” and “you.” It is a celebration of Native American culture, struggle, survival, and alliance.
Fry Bread uses each corner and space available to exalt and disseminate Native American culture. Before readers even get to the title page, the front endpapers work as dedicatory plaques, listing the names of Native Nations, which continue on the back endpapers. The text is brief enough to capture the attention of little ones, but contain deliberate words rich in heritage such as “sienna” and “earth” to describe the color of fry bread. Harder phrases like “the long walk” and “the stolen land,” are also included, as these are likely familiar to Native children and uncomfortable truths non-Natives must acknowledge. For “Place” he lists eight states where Native Americans live, and follows with listing individual Nations as parallel political recognition. By the end of the narrative, the phrase “We are still here” masterfully carries the book’s celebratory and educational connotations.
In the back matter, Noble Maillard digs deeper into Native American culture, citing historical facts and his own Seminole life experience. He references details in the illustrations that help readers adjust their stereotypical eyes. He reiterates that Native Americans do not look a certain way or only live in reservations. The patterns on the mugs, the doll’s dresses, and the woman’s skirt are not arbitrary, he explains, rather “geometric patterns worn in ceremonial sashes” by the Seminoles. Basket weaving is for practical as well as artistic purposes. He points out the marks on the arm holding the skillet, denoting the cook a man, who traditionally are the ones to fry the bread.
The author does not only focus on the colonization of the United States by evil European settlers. The book does not blame contemporary readers for the past, but educates them about present Native American culture. He mentions the intermixing of other races, white and Black included, with Native Americans. At least twice he confirms the African American influence in Southern tribes. Noble Maillard accepts that American Indians suffer from “diabetes, obesity, and heart problems,” and as a counter argument to his book promoting disease, he gives historical, societal, and political reasons attributing to this plight.
Fry Bread is a splendor to the eyes and the heart. Parallel to how recipes differ between families and Nations, the book reminds us that we are not better than one another, one of us is not right and the other wrong. We must work together as ingredients in a recipe, however, to ensure that all citizens of this country achieve the common goal of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
AWARDS
2020 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal, Winner
2020 American Indian Youth Literature Award, Honor
2020 Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children, Recommended
2020 Charlotte Zolotow Award, Honor Book
2020 Mitten Award, Honor Book
2020 Building STEAM with Día
2019 Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature Best Books
REVIEW EXCERPTS
From Kirkus Reviews, starred review: “With buoyant, heartfelt illustrations that show the diversity in Native America, the book tells the story of a post-colonial food, a shared tradition across the North American continent . . . Through this topic that includes the diversity of so many Native peoples in a single story, Maillard (Mekusukey Seminole) promotes unity and familiarity among nations. Fry bread is much more than food, as this book amply demonstrates.”
From Booklist, starred review: “Fry Bread celebrates the thing itself and much, much more . . . Maillard and Martinez-Neal bring depth, detail, and whimsy to this Native American food story, with text and illustrations depicting the diversity of indigenous peoples, the role of continuity between generations, and the adaptation over time of people, place, and tradition.”
From School Library Journal, starred review: “This warm and charming book shows and affirms Native lives. The informational text and expressive drawings give it broad appeal.”
CONNECTIONS
Watch the Dreamscape animated version, narrated by the author, found through the local library at hoopladigital.com.
Lindstrom, Carole. 2020. We Are Water Protectors. 2021 Caldecott Medal Winner. A must read that portrays the current role and struggles of Native Americans to safeguard their lands and non-renewable sources in language children can understand.
Child, Brenda J. 2018. Bowwow Powwow. Because not all Native American books must be educational: A narrative that celebrates the powwow tradition in a whimsical way.
Biblioterika 