By James Bird
Feiwel & Friends
2020
311 pages Middle
Grade
The Brave is a brave, sober, loving book that
was introduced to me by my sixth grade granddaughter, Adela. I bought the book
at her request, and we will have a book discussion after she finishes. While it
is realistic fiction, it has some aspects of magical realism.
Collin is a 12-year-old with an OCD problem that makes it
difficult for him at school. He counts all the letters in the words that people
say to him. When he responds, he begins with the number of letters. So if his
teacher says, “Good morning, Collin.” He would respond : “17. Good morning,” No
matter how hard he tries, he can’t stop counting, and the school kids can’t
stop harassing him. When things become unbearable, his alcoholic father sends
him across the country with his dog, Seven, to live with his mother, whom he
has never met.
Cecilia, his mother, is Ojibwe and lives on the Fond du Lac
reservation outside of Duluth MN. Wait! Duluth! My home town! I called Adela
and said, “You didn’t tell me it takes place in Duluth.” Oh yeah” she
responded, “I forgot.” Actually, the reservation is about 15 miles from town. Of course, to me, that made the book all the
more important. As a kid growing up in
Duluth, there were kids from the reservation in our school, but native culture
was pretty much a given in the culture of Duluth.
The native culture takes a secondary role in the story line,
except, perhaps, for the magic that seems to surround a new acquaintance,
Orenda. Orenda lives mostly in a tree house next door to Collin’s mother and
grandmother. She believes that she is turning into a butterfly as her body deteriorates
from ALS. Her mother, who died of ALS, is a butterfly that visits her
frequently. Orenda is an incredible character in the book, and the fact that
her father built her a treehouse makes her all the more magical.
As Collin becomes her friend, she teaches him about strength
and bravery, and the stronger he becomes, the easier it is for him to manage at
school and control his counting obsession. His mother teaches him about the
purity of love, and he finds himself growing into the person that he wants to
become. He gains enough mastery over his life that when Orenda is dying. he is
able to manage the pain and grief. Collin muses at one point: “I wish I could
take her pain away. I’d happily feel it if it meant she would feel better, but
I also know she would never let me. It’s hers. It’s part of her story.”
I tried to read the book through the eyes of my 11-year-old
granddaughter. She definitely will have seen the depth of the crisis at hand, and
is responding to the challenges of bullying and the joys of beautiful
relationships. One reviewer
complained that some of the natives were stereotypes. “Still we should be past
stereotypes of stoic, wise Indians who speak little and are abnormally
attached to the great outdoors.” These details were things I was looking for as
I read, but I became so involved in the beauty of the story line and the
relationships that I didn’t pay attention to potential stereotypes.
Before I began The Brave, I read that it was on
several lists of best books of 2020, including School Library Journal, and the
New York Public Library, so I was surprised when I read negative reviews in The
New York Times, The Circle Newspaper, among others. They felt that
the Native American experience wasn’t accurate enough. But, that’s wasn’t what
I was reading the book for. I saw a young boy and a teenage girl struggling,
finding, and becoming the butterflies that they were destined to become. In my opinion,
The Brave was just that, brave and beautiful.
James Bird, the author of The Brave, is a
filmmaker and author. He is of Ojibwe descent and went to school in Minnesota.
He has a new book, No Place Like Home, coming out in August.
No comments:
Post a Comment