Review by Booklist Review
Ages 5-9. "How can you buy the sky? Chief Seattle began. / How can you own the rain and the wind? / My mother told me, / Every part of this earth is sacred to our people." As Jeffers notes in her afterword, the words that inspired the book were spoken or written (time has clouded their origins) in the mid-1800s by the leader of the Northwest Indian Nation, in response to the U.S. government's persistent attempts to buy land from his people. Jeffers presents the land of North America and its people (Indians, then; today modern, ecologically aware Americans) in a continuum. While she doesn't shy away from showing the United States' poor stewardship of the land, her primary message is one of hope, but some readers (native Americans among them) may find her visual message--that the wise Indians of the past are passing the torch of enlightenment to responsible non-Indians today--unrealistic, to say the least. Artistically, however, the book is impressive. In large, double-page spreads, the illustrator interprets the text with reverence. Detailed, crosshatched drawings in colored inks and washes create a series of striking, panoramic scenes. Providing as it does a philosophical and historical basis to the present-day ecological movement, this might be a good choice to read aloud on Earth Day. (Reviewed Nov. 1, 1991)0803709692Carolyn Phelan
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this picture book adapted from a speech purportedly delivered by Chief Seattle at treaty negotiations in the 1850s, "Seattle's words and Jeffers's images create a powerful message," said PW. Ages 5-up. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Horn Book Review
Though the text bears little resemblance to Chief Seattle's original speech - having been rewritten to be a testimony to the supposed belief of Native Americans in the unity of man and nature - it rings as warning and prophecy in modern ears and is resonant with far-seeing wisdom. Jeffers's delicate yet strong illustrations offer a combination of sadness and hope. Potent and timely. From HORN BOOK 1991, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
In the 1850's, when the US wanted to buy his people's Pacific Northwest land, Chief Seattle delivered this eloquent message to a Commissioner of Indian Affairs; since then, it has been adapted several times, by Joseph Campbell among others. Poetic and compelling, it's a plea to revere and preserve the web of creation: ``Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.'' Jeffers's finely detailed art focuses on the beauty and nobility of the Native Americans' world, with a tidy clear-cut forest to represent the depredations to come. A handsome setting for an ever-more resonant appeal. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 5+)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
