Hidden Roots

Bruchac, Joseph. Hidden roots. New York: Scholastic, 2004.

Plot Summary: Eleven-year-old Howard lives in New York with his mother and hot-tempered father. Howard’s father works in a paper mill, but becomes badly injured at work and must stay home. Howard is a very inquisitive young man, and it isn’t long before he becomes curious about his hidden heritage. Howard’s Uncle Lewis finally shares their family secrets with Howard, including the fact that Uncle Lewis is actually Howard’s grandfather.

Critical Analysis: Hidden Roots by Joseph Bruchac takes place in New York in the mid 1950’s. Young Howard is forced to be silent about his heritage because he is ignorant of his family history. By the end og the story, Uncle Lewis, who is actually Howard’s grandfather, shares the family secrets with Howard. The story is emotional, and includes themes of domestic abuse, death, and information concerning the sterilization of women. Uncle Lewis and Howard’s father are depicted as two foil characters, the father being abusive and rough, while Uncle Lewis is always saving the day when trouble brews. This book is well written, but slow at times. Although it’s just over one hundred pages long, the bulk of this story could be well covered in fifty pages or less. The setting and language in this book are portrayed in an accurate light, as Joseph Bruchac shares an ancestry with the Abenaki Indians. Several cultural markers can be found in this short chapter book; the main markers being information about Native American spiritual beliefs and the importance of animals. 

The author includes several “educational bonuses” in the book’s afterwords. These include in interview with Joseph Bruchac, factual information about the Abenaki Indians, Abenaki recipes and games, and much more. These quality resources can be well used in a classroom setting when studying Native Americans.

Reviews:

Kirkus: Eleven-year-old Howard's tiny New York town has 1954's post-war and Cold War concerns, but Howard's family has more complex scars. A silence surrounding their ancestry involves parental shame and forced ignorance: Howard has no idea what's going on, only that most questions are forbidden. Physical abuse from his father enforces the tense silence. Uncle Louis, however, shows Howard another kind of silence: strengthening and centered, built around nature, calmness, and listening. Eventually, Uncle Louis tells the secret: they are Abenaki Indians, not whites, closeted because of sterilization laws enacted against Indians in Vermont during those decades. Parallels with Nazi Germany are on target, but Howard's new knowledge arrives so late that its integration must be instant; also, despite the author's note's claim that an abusive person can be made "straight again," it's unclear in the text what will happen about the hitting. Worth it, though, for the important subject and Uncle Louis's solid, rooted depth.

VOYA: This somewhat autobiographical novel examines a year in the life of an eleven-year-old boy. In their French Canadian community in upstate New York in the 1950s, Sonny's father works in the local paper mill and broods about his dangerous job and how the waste runoff fouls the Hudson River. Sonny's parents harbor a deep secret that occasionally causes the father to become abusive, particularly when "Uncle" Louis comes to visit. Sonny, with head down, quietly learns to be invisible at school and at home until ironically his father is injured at work on the hand that he uses to hit his family. Louis, a grizzled mountain man, spends more time instructing Sonny about trapping and the history and customs of the local Indians who were mercilessly driven off their lands and in some cases, sterilized in a eugenics program. Sonny learns from Louis's wisdom, his father's regrets, and from the kindness of a librarian who feeds his avid hunger for reading. Slowly emerging from his self-imposed shell, he begins thriving at school and eventually learns the surprising truth about Louis and his family. This well-known Native American writer for children and young adults effectively conveys the sensitive side of growing up as an outsider, a theme in many of his books. The slight, easily accessible story is appropriate for upper elementary and middle school readers.

Awards:

American Indian Youth Literature Award, 2006 Winner Middle School United States

Connections: Use this book when studying civil rights, Native Americans, or United States History. Because of the content related to sterilization, I would not chose this particular selection to use as a read-aloud, but many young readers will enjoy this book as an independent read. 

Check out the following titles also about Native Americans by Joseph Bruchac…

Bruchac, Joseph, and Anna Vojtech. The first strawberries: a Cherokee story. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1993.

Bruchac, Joseph. Children of the longhouse. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1996.

Bruchac, Joseph, and S. D. Nelson. Crazy Horse's vision. New York: Lee & Low Books, 2000.

Bruchac, Joseph, and Sally Wern Comport. Bearwalker. New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, 2007.

Bruchac, Joseph, and Bill Farnsworth. Buffalo song. New York: Lee & Low Books, 2008.