School Reading: Spider Woman's Granddaughters

Title: Spider Woman's Granddaughters

Author: Paula Gunn Allen (Editor)

Series: N/A

Format: Paperback

Release Date: May 12, 1990

Genre(s): Literature, Short Stories, Spirituality, Folklore

Rating:      A

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Summary

Native American scholar, literary critic, poet, and novelist Paula Gunn Allen, who is herself a Laguna Pueblo-Sioux Indian, became increasingly aware in her academic career that the writings of Native Americans, especially women, have been marginalized by the Western literary canon. Allen set out to understand why this was so and, more importantly, to remedy the situation. The result is this powerful collection of traditional tales, biographical writings, and contemporary short stories, many by the most accomplished Native American women writing today, including: Louise Erdrich, Mary TallMountain, Linda Hogan, and many others.

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Review

Plot: This book is a bit different for me to review. There isn't really a "plot" because it is a complication of short stories, poems, biographies, etc. I had to read this book in an English class in order to learn about Native American women and culture. I had to read most of the stories, and honestly I liked them all! The book is split up into three different sections: The Warriors, The Causalities, and The Resistance. The Warriors tells about the early times for Native Americans.  "A Warriors Daughter" showed how a woman can be beautiful as well as strong. The Casualties tell about their downfall as colonies start coming in and taking over. This disrupts their entire way of living. "The Disposal of Mary Joe's Children" is an autobiography that shows the struggles of Mary TallMountain- a woman that really had a lot of influence in this book. "Grace" was one of my favorite stories because it was told from the point of view of a young girl. The final part, The Resistance, tells more modern stories of how Native American women are taking back their identities. "An American in New York" was about a Native American woman living in modern day America who refuses to forget where she came from and who she is.

Characters: There aren't really "characters" in this book. Even the fiction is based on myths or true stories. I really like the people in this book though because they are such strong, female leads. In my last Owl Crate, the theme was Leading Ladies and we got a lot of Hermione and Katniss gear. However, they don't even begin to define the term leading ladies as well as the ladies in Spider Woman's Granddaughters. You learn about how much they have gone through and how they still have stayed strong throughout the generations.

Cover: The cover is fairly simple and plain. I don't have too much to say about it!

Closing Thoughts: Overall I gave this book an A because it wasn't just "good for a school book" but just simply good. There are many different kinds of stories that appeal to different people. There are cool legends that don't make a lot of sense but have a lot of symbolism and are really interesting to analyze. There are biographies that are actually pretty emotional to read. There are little short stories that are somewhat fiction but tell about real times. I definitely recommend reading this if you are into books like this.  

Where to find the book:

 Goodreads

Sweet Daydreams,

Brooke