The Game of Silence audiobook

Digital audiobook performed by Anna Fields.Book two in the Birchbark House series which is about an Ojibwa tribe’s life on their island in Lake Superior in the mid-19th century. Omakayas is the young girl who narrates this book, which chronicles a year on the island that is today known as Madeline Island. I love how Erdrich depicts these people and their way of life. Not everything is pleasant or easy, but there is room for joy and happiness, for children to explore and learn. I loved the various adventures (and misadventures) Omakayas, her younger brother Pinch and cousin Two Strike, a girl who is every bit as strong and fierce as any boy her age, get into. It is two years after book one, and Omakayas is growing up. At age nine she has more responsibility to help with the necessary tasks of tribal living. Her intelligence, courage and spirit are recognized by the elders, and her friendship with a white girl, whom she calls “the Break Apart Girl” because of her tightly corseted waist, will be important to them all as they face the changes to their way of life. Erdrich is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwa, and she spoke to various Ojibwa elders about the significance of Madeline Island. Events depicted are historically accurate. The text version includes Erdrich’s pencil drawing illustrations. I will definitely continue reading this series.Anna Fields does a marvelous job narrating the audiobook. She sets a good pace and her diction is clear enough that even younger children will not have trouble following the story.

I didn't realize that this is a children's book. I enjoyed it as an adult and was sorry when it ended. The illustrations did not display well on my Kindle, but aside from this, the story was highly enjoyable. A young girl's memories of hard times for her tribe form the heart of her story. Happy in her island home, she and her family are forced to leave it behind due to pressure from the white people. Aside from this major trouble, her life is full of happy events and minor annoyance. She enjoys making friends, growing up, learning her own gifts, and how she fits in with the tribe.I grew up in the Southwest, and my knowledge of Native Americans has been limited to the tribes of California, Arizona, and New Mexico. It was a real treat to learn about another tribe, this time the Ojibway.

Reading this series with my nine-year-old is a great joy. The Spanglish of our home is now peppered with Ojibwe language.

2nd book in the Birchbark series my 11 year old daughter and I are reading (and loving). This one was as sweet and emotional, with heart ache but not the same heartbreak as the first. The author’s illustrations were just as soft and simple. Again, a must-read for all Little House on the Prairie fans!

I enjoyed this book even more than the first. Perhaps because I was already somewhat familiar with the characters.

Erdrich just writes so beautifully. Even in a "kids book", she infuses beautiful prose, and does not hold back or dumb things down. But more importantly, the ideas, the paradigms about life, are complex and nuanced, giving all readers a glimpse of this incredible Ojibwe world.

o Summary: This book talks about a little girl name Omakayas who is a native american. She loves the life she lives and then one day realizes that it can all be taken away from her. The white people come and try to take over her tribes land and she is scared of what is to come.o Grade level: 5tho Appropriate classroom use: When learning about all the things that happened to the native americans. This can be read in a reading class at the same time that they are learning about native americans in their history class.o Individual students who might benefit from reading: students who are unaware of the things that native americans went througho Small group use: Student can talk about how they would have felt if they were the little girl in the book.o Whole class use: Will read at the same time that history is teaching a similar lesson and test over comprehension of the book as a whole.o Related books in genre/subject or content area:Crossing Bok Chittoo Multimedia connections available: None of this book

I found it interesting that Erdrich came back to these people so many years later (in real time, I mean- The Birchbark House was written in 1999). I'm glad she did. I enjoyed this one perhaps more than the first- I think Erdrich does a fabulous job of showing how the changes come to the family without telling us a thing. It's all seen quite authentically through the eyes of Omaykayas, and the baggage I bring to what she sees is emphatically my own. I love Omaykayas' family. Her interactions with her annoying little brother Pinch are spot-on. I really dig the ebb and flow of emotions that run through this family- Yellow Kettle boils over with a certain regularity, and everyone copes. DeyDey vanishes and reappears, and it's just the way things are.My own childhood was steeped in Manifest Destiny and the Little House books. I wish I'd had these books instead. Though I'd probably have colored my face with charcoal and wandered off into the woods for a week.

** spoiler alert ** Omakayas begins to learn her strengths and abilities as Nokomis (her grandmother) teaches her about healing plants, and she begins to have prophetic dreams. The most important dream is one in which she sees her family leaving their beloved Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker to try to find living space in the lands occupied by the Dakota Indians. On this journey, the Game of Silence becomes a matter of life or death. This is a fitting sequel to Erdrich's _The Birchbark House_. Fans of the Little House books will probably enjoy these books told from the Anishabe (Ojibwe) point of view.