Poetry. Native American Studies. Sherman Alexie's poems, fiction, and essays have won him an international following since his first book, THE BUSINESS OF FANCYDANCING, was published to great acclaim in 1992. SMOKE SIGNALS, the film he adapted from one of his stories and coproduced, enlarged his audience still further. Alexie's honors include awards from the NEA, the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Foundation, and the Washington State Arts Commission, and a citation as One of the 20 Best American Novelists Under the Age of 40 from GRANTA magazine. An enrolled Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, Alexie lives in Seattle with his wife and son.
This adaptation of the Music for Little Mozarts piano curriculum is designed to provide classroom music instruction for 4-, 5- and 6-year-olds in the preschool or kindergarten setting. It is a comprehensive approach to musical learning that develops singing, movement, and listening skills simultaneously with an introduction to musical styles and concepts. Ten detailed lesson plans are included along with reproducible activity pages for the children. The curriculum materials combine to create an exciting and imaginative atmosphere in the classroom. No keyboard instruction is included, but the classroom edition can serve as a recruitment class for the piano course. Perfect for teachers with limited preparation time, and all levels of musical experience. The comb binding creates a lay-flat book that is perfect for study and performance. The CD includes all of the songs, stories, and activities. For music teachers who want to offer this program, piano accompaniments are included as an optional enhancement to the lesson. Assessment materials and correlations to the National Standards for Music Education are also included.
Winner of the American Folklore Society’s Chicago Folklore Prize Yaqui regard song as a kind of lingua franca of the intelligent universe. It is through song that experience with other living things is made intelligible and accessible to the human community. Deer songs often take the form of dialogues in which the deer and others in the wilderness world speak with one another or with the deer singers themselves. It is in this way, according to one deer singer, that “the wilderness world listens to itself even today.” In this book authentic ceremonial songs, transcribed in both Yaqui and English, are the center of a fascinating discussion of the Deer Song tradition in Yaqui culture. Yaqui Deer Songs/Maso Bwikam thus enables non-Yaquis to hear these dialogues with the wilderness world for the first time.
The word "elegy" comes from the Ancient Greek elogos, meaning a mournful poem or song, in particular, a song of grief in response to loss. Because mourning and memorialization are so deeply embedded in the human condition, all human societies have developed means for lamenting the dead, and, in "That the People Might Live," Arnold Krupat surveys the traditions of Native American elegiac expression over several centuries. Krupat covers a variety of oral performances of loss and renewal, including the Condolence Rites of the Iroquois and the memorial ceremony of the Tlingit people known as koo’eex, examining as well a number of Ghost Dance songs, which have been reinterpreted in culturally specific ways by many different tribal nations. Krupat treats elegiac "farewell" speeches of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in considerable detail, and comments on retrospective autobiographies by Black Hawk and Black Elk. Among contemporary Native writers, he looks at elegiac work by Linda Hogan, N. Scott Momaday, Gerald Vizenor, Sherman Alexie, Maurice Kenny, and Ralph Salisbury, among others. Despite differences of language and culture, he finds that death and loss are consistently felt by Native peoples both personally and socially: someone who had contributed to the People’s well-being was now gone. Native American elegiac expression offered mourners consolation so that they might overcome their grief and renew their will to sustain communal life.
A celebration of the power of imagination from the Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Award-winning creator of Not a Box Experience the thrill of the moment when pretend feels so real that it actually becomes real! Following the critically acclaimed Not a Box, this book proves that a stick is not always just a stick. Whether it's conducting an orchestra, painting a masterpiece, or slaying a dragon—give a child a stick and let imagination take over and the magic begin.
The magic and wonder of winter’s first snowfall is perfectly captured in Ezra Jack Keat’s Caldecott Medal-winning picture book. Young readers can enjoy this celebrated classic as a full-sized board book, perfect for read-alouds of all kinds and a great gift for the holiday season. In 1962, a little boy named Peter put on his snowsuit and stepped out of his house and into the hearts of millions of readers. Universal in its appeal, this story beautifully depicts a child's wonder at a new world, and the hope of capturing and keeping that wonder forever. This big, sturdy edition will bring even more young readers to the story of Peter and his adventures in the snow. Ezra Jack Keats was also the creator of such classics as Goggles, A Letter to Amy, Pet Show!, Peter’s Chair, and A Whistle for Willie. (This book is also available in Spanish, as Un dia de nieve.) Praise for The Snowy Day: “Keats made Peter’s world so inviting that it beckons us. Perhaps the busyness of daily life in the 21st century makes us appreciate Peter even more—a kid who has the luxury of a whole day to just be outside, surrounded by snow that’s begging to be enjoyed.” —The Atlantic "Ezra Jack Keats's classic The Snowy Day, winner of the 1963 Caldecott Medal, pays homage to the wonder and pure pleasure a child experiences when the world is blanketed in snow."—Publisher's Weekly
This book provides the historical framework for the shift in Native American literary studies away from cultural analyses toward more politically inflected and motivated perspectives, and examines the key moments in this turn.
Learning with Music offers an accessible introduction to music education theory for those working in the early years. Using real case studies and rich examples, the book provides practical suggestions to develop the formative ideas of music education, such as melody, rhythm, pulse and timbre, into games and activities for every early years setting. Chapters include a range of tried-and-tested lesson sequences and accompanying developmental benefits, allowing practitioners to confidently create tailor-made lesson plans and manage music sessions, ranging from one child through to larger groups. Each concept is grounded in child development theory, as well as music education theory, giving practitioners an insight into the research-based principles and priorities of music education for their own unique setting. With a clear focus on the benefits of teaching music from birth to preschool, Learning with Music is essential reading for all early years practitioners, as well as students on Early Childhood courses.
The ethnically diverse scope, broad chronological coverage, and mix of biographical, critical, historical, political, and cultural entries make this the most useful and exciting poetry reference of its kind for students today. American poetry springs up out of all walks of life; its poems are "maternal as well as paternal...stuff'd with the stuff that is coarse and stuff'd with the stuff that is fine," as Walt Whitman wrote, adding "Of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religion." Written for high school and undergraduate students, this two-volume encyclopedia covers U.S. poetry from the Colonial era to the present, offering full treatments of hundreds of key poets of the American canon. What sets this reference apart is that it also discusses events, movements, schools, and poetic approaches, placing poets in their social, historical, political, cultural, and critical contexts and showing how their works mirror the eras in which they were written. Readers will learn about surrealism, ekphrastic poetry, pastoral elegy, the Black Mountain poets, and "language" poetry. There are long and rich entries on modernism and postmodernism as well as entries related to the formal and technical dimensions of American poetry. Particular attention is paid to women poets and poets from various ethnic groups. Poets such as Amiri Baraka, Nathaniel Mackey, Natasha Trethewey, and Tracy Smith are featured. The encyclopedia also contains entries on a wide selection of Latino and Native American poets and substantial coverage of the avant-garde and experimental movements and provides sidebars that illuminate key points.
