While it is troubling that this author had resources available to get things right, most Americans and Canadians outside of northern New England and Quebec have never heard of this happening. What I would appreciate from these essays is at least some sort of nod to the fact that this book will at least inform readers, educators and librarians of the eugenics travesty! Instead, it simply reads as a nitpicking polemic against Beth Kanell.
Once again, what could be a very useful blog presents itself as an angry, spite-filled harangue of anything "outsider".
What this blog offers, in items written by myself (Debbie) or guest writers/reviewers, is a perspective not readily available in mainstream publications. I gather Durable Goods reads this blog, at least on occasion, because he wants to see what I (or a guest writer/reviewer) has to say about a certain book he is interested in.
I'm also guessing that he comes back because sometimes he finds the material here useful. Sometimes, though, he does not like what he reads. Hence, he says what could be a very useful blog presents itself as an angry, spite-filled harangue of anything "outsider."
He is feeling.... assaulted, perhaps? by the words Seale and Dow wrote? I invite him to imagine what it is like to be a Native child who too-often reads words in children's books that assault his or her self esteem and identity. And, imagine, too, the non-Native child whose misperceptions of American Indians are affirmed by those same words.
I am not sorry or sympathetic, Durable Goods, that you're upset by the review. I hope that, when you are less emotionally reactive, that you will revisit the review and consider what Seale and Dow offer.
I know some review journals rate books on the basis of the topic, and no doubt, this book will get a higher rating than it deserves because there are few books for children on this topic, but I suggest librarians pass on DARKNESS UNDER THE WATER and get multiple copies of Joseph Bruchac's HIDDEN ROOTS instead.
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