Jessie reviewed We Are Still Here! by Traci Sorell
Review of 'We Are Still Here!' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Conflicting feelings on this one. On the one hand, it seeks to fill a gap in children's history books with information about Indigenous peoples in the United States from 1871 (the date of the last treaty between Native people and the U.S. government) and the present. I do like the structure of arranging information by topic (presented as different Native children's class presentations, although I don't know how necessary that framework is) as opposed to in a linear timeline, although the linear timeline in the back matter is very helpful. I think the structure helps recognize the cyclical nature of history, with issues like religious freedom, language restoration, and Native advocacy resonating from the past through the present and the future. These are all important topics that children, Native and non-Native, should learn about. However, the mix of reading level indicators left me wondering what audience the book was aimed …
Conflicting feelings on this one. On the one hand, it seeks to fill a gap in children's history books with information about Indigenous peoples in the United States from 1871 (the date of the last treaty between Native people and the U.S. government) and the present. I do like the structure of arranging information by topic (presented as different Native children's class presentations, although I don't know how necessary that framework is) as opposed to in a linear timeline, although the linear timeline in the back matter is very helpful. I think the structure helps recognize the cyclical nature of history, with issues like religious freedom, language restoration, and Native advocacy resonating from the past through the present and the future. These are all important topics that children, Native and non-Native, should learn about. However, the mix of reading level indicators left me wondering what audience the book was aimed at. Advanced language like "federally recognized status" and "sovereign resurgence" that would be at home in a nonfiction text for middle schoolers is mixed with simple sentence structures, a picture book layout with kid-friendly artwork, and the repetition of the phrase "we are still here!", which is reminiscent of the kind of repetition well-suited to preschool story times. I want to recommend this book for the content but wouldn't honestly know who to give it to. A family read, maybe?