ELEM: Bridgestone Native Peoples series is poor, sloppy

[Johanna Halbeisen <johanna@MASSED.NET>]

It's book ordering time for me.  I have to get all next year's money spent
(on paper) by the end of June.  Assuming at least some of you are in the
same boat, I want to share a mistake I made last year in hopes others won't
make it.

I purchased the Native Peoples series by Bridgestone.  I am sorry I did.
This is a formula series, with each book 24 pages with a map, Fast Facts,
Hands On (activity), Words to Know, Read More (very brief bibliography),
Useful Addresses, Internet Sites, and Index.  I find the way the
information is presented is sloppy and confusing.  For example, the Fast
Facts page in _The Iroquois Indians_ says "These facts tell how the
Iroquois once lived" and then gives many facts in the present tense.  This
confusion continues throughout the book.  I see much confusion among my
students who think that Indians only lived 200+ years ago and if they live
now, they look and act just like they did in pre-Colonial times.  This book
won't help that.

There are some other things in this book that bother me.   The Iroquois
book has a "Hands On" page on making wampum from macaroni noodles.  I am
trying to get my kids to understand that "playing Indian" is essentially
disrespectful.  How does making a string of colored macaroni teach respect
for the Iroquois?  How would someone who is, say, Catholic feel if they saw
kids playing they were Catholic and making rosary beads from macaroni?

The last page of each book has three sections:  Useful addresses, internet
sites and an index.  Any book with internet sites will be out-of-date in a
very short time.  I tried the sites given in the Iroquois book and, indeed,
the second site is already says "These pages are not maintained. The author
passed away: summer 1997."  The index looks like it was put there because
information books should have indexes.  It has 14 entries.  In a 24 page
book.  For example, mentioned, but not indexed, are the five Iroquois
nations.

I think that in the future, I won't purchase a formula set for
informational purposes unless I can see a book from the series.  A series
on Indians I do recommend is in the New True series published by Children's
Press.


---------------------
Johanna Halbeisen
Woodland Elementary School (preK-4)
80 Powder Mill Rd.
Southwick, MA 01077
johanna@massed.net

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