Muskrat Will Be Swimming

Sometimes you can't change other people, but you can reframe their words. Wonderful story about finding your own strength in your roots and the Earth. The illustrations are beautiful.

Really beautiful book, both the prose and the illustrations. This smart, proud, and compassionate heroine will make you and your kids smile, and this story will inspire you to stop reading and go outside.

I think this is a must-have book for libraries and classrooms, especially in the northeastern USA, where the exact flavor of prejudice depicted here has been (and remains) rampant and inadequately discussed. (Apparently my local librarian agrees with me, even though I didn't get the chance to give her my whole spiel; the book appeared on a prominent shelf in the children's section a few days after I showed her my copy.)However, I have to admit, my preschooler isn't quite ready for this book yet. (The other kids being mean to the main character was a bit much for particular kid, who is easily worried by "meanness",, and the resolution not clear enough. We'll try again in a year or three.) So, unlike a lot of my picture book reviews (where I'm rating a book both on how much I like it myself AND on how much it holds my kid), this one is going to be all me.The text of this book is unusually subtle in how it handles verbal bullying and different facets of identity. The words that the other kids use to hurt the Native main character are focused on poverty and being "weird", while her grandfather remembers being called a "frog" and taunted for being French when he was a kid. The bullies are never confronted directly or reformed; the book is focused on the main character (with gentle support and validation from her grandfather) finding strength in her identity, even though that identity is under attack at school.It's not that I don't also like to see books where bullies are confronted/reformed, but it's a topic that is often handled with a certain - triteness? In contrast, this book doesn't pretend that the situation is easy or immediately fixable, but does hold out hope that it is survivable. It's a book that truly seems to be written in support of the bullied, instead of as an empathy exercise for bullies.My one caveat is that while this is an #OwnVoices text (and it shows!), the illustrator is some white dude who likes to paint wildlife (and that shows, too). The bullying situation is something that could be happening in my town. The photo of the author shows a woman who looks like she could be one of my neighbors. But the painted Abenaki characters don't look like my neighbors; they look more stereotypically "Indian" in their features and have much darker skin than any Abenaki that I've met. (Except when the main character is having her dream about being powerful Muskrat? In her dream, she's much fairer - and also wearing more stereotypical "Indian" clothing???) Some of the pictures seem convincing to me, while others give me just a little bit of a Holy Simple Native Folk vibe. The wildlife, on the other hand, looks great? Very realistic?So, anyhow, I would love to see another edition of this book done by an #OwnVoices illustrator! Books like A Different Pond or I Lost My Tooth in Africa get so much of their power from text and illustrations speaking together about a shared experience, and this version of this book just doesn't have that. That said, in my opinion the text is important enough (and the illustrations not actively problematic enough) to make this book a very worthwhile and important story to share with our young people, so I am going to go ahead and give the full 5 stars for the book overall.

Book was in great condition. Very excited to do shopping this way.

As an immigrant bringing up my children in fatherland, I often struggle between 'being a Roman in Rome' and establishing culturally consistent values. In a way I am blessed. I live in the Silicon Valley where my children get to see a large Indian community that they can identify with. They go to a school that truly values diversity. Though complicated in many ways, we always have the choice of going back to motherland.I was thinking along these lines and it suddenly struck me like a thunderbolt - what about Native American people? Living like aliens in their own land, they face the same issues any immigrant faces. At the crucial age of 5 or 6, when a child's thinking is expanding from ego-centrism to more concrete logic and reasoning, the Native American children go to school. Is it a culture shock for them? Is the peer group conducive for building self-esteem? Are they exposed to conflicting cultural messages? Is the peer judgement too cruel for these children? How do they deal with it?Questions, questions and more questions! Most of which are answered in Muskrat Will Be Swimming. Jeannie is a young 6-ish year old girl who loves living with her family around a lake. Other children at school tease her. They call her LAKE RAT. Jeannie unsuccessfully tries explaining how much fun it is to swim in the lake, to watch turtles lay eggs and to catch dragonflies. So Jeannie finally gives up.There is one wise man or woman who imparts wisdom at such situations and Muskrat Will Be Swimming is no exception! Jeannie's grandfather makes her realize that one cannot change what family or culture they are born in to, but it is up to the individual to realize their true potential an rise up to the occasion. `Even if you are a rat, you have a specific role in this universe' says the wise grandpa.Cheryl highlights the lifestyle of Native American people throughout the book. I am quoting couple of my favorites."..none of the kids have clothes passed down from two sets of cousins. All their clothes are brand-new clean, not clean from hundreds of washings, faded and soft like mine.""So I don't tell them about the fish we catch and eat at big fish-frys mid-summer under the stars. I figure they'd tell me food is supposed to come from the supermarket. So I just get quite and don't say anything."I grew up listening to made up stories about everything under the Sun from my dad and aunt. I read my first children's book when I was 9-10! So story-telling tradition followed by the Native American has a mystic pull that I simply cannot resist! Plus the beautiful illustrations and the priceless message, I consider this book a value addition to my bookshelf..... Hmmm.....let me correct that, to my children's bookshelf :)Other useful links: [...]

I have read this book to my girls (who are 13 and 14 now) since they were very little girls, and they still love listening to it. I read it to my two year old boy today for the first time. Yes, it's a book about bullying, but what I think is most special about it is the way the author describes the sights, sounds and smells of the lake area and shanty town. It's a very beautiful book about nature...and being comfortable with your ethnicity and status. This book makes me want to get outside and just sit quietly and listen. It's one of my absolute favorites to read and it will always be a classic in my house.

Set along a forgotten lake shore, Muskrat Will Be Swimming is the story of a young girl teased because she is a "lake rat." Her grandfather comes to her rescue by helping her develop pride in her Native American culture. Grandfather weaves the young girl's story into a traditional Native American story focusing on the muskrat. The "Teachers Take Note" webpage for this title on the Tilbury House Publishers website includes add-ons include Native American animal tales art activities as well as internet links to tolerance websites. I received this title complimentary from Tilbury House Publishers in exchange for an honest review, but the opinion is all mine.