Berry Magic by Teri Sloat and Betty Huffman
Published by Alaska Northwest Books

1. Is there ridicule in the book that may cause embarrassment for the Native American reader?
There is no ridicule written in the text that may cause embarrassment for Yup'ik Eskimos. However, the book mentions of old women frowning and complaining of the dry, tasteless crowberries that grew around the village. In our Yup'ik culture, one of the values is to have a non-complaining spirit, especially about what is in our environment that we have no control human control of, such as the abundance, or lack of what grows.

It is possible that the author unintentionally illustrated the characters to appear plump, and as large people with large hands. Yup'ik people, especially the women, are small in stature, but in this book, they appear grossly large and fat. "Long ago", people were not plump as depicted in this book.

In the book, the women's hair is not braided, as was the usual custom "long ago". Rather, their hair is in a ponytail, or in a bun while the main character's hair is braided only on the front. "Long ago" as the book mentions, women kept their hair braided or in a knot and almost always used a pelatuuk for fear of losing a strand of hair that a shaman can find and place some kind of a spell using that strand of hair. According to a local elder, pelatuuks did not come into our area until the 1930's when Ungauluk opened a store in this area.

2. Are the characters depicted as horrifying or abusers of animals or humans?
No, the characters are not depicted as abusers of animals or humans in this book. In fact, there is a picture of the girl petting a squirrel, although in real life, it is impossible as squirrels are wild in our area.

There is also a picture of two mice pushing the sewing bag as the girl took it down from a table or shelf. It is impossible for mice to be helping in this manner. Also, the mice in the book are as big as rats.

3. Are the pictures of faces, clothing and housing stereotypical of Natives in general?
Yes, the faces look identical, with slits for eyes on the characters as well as the dolls. The qaspeqs and the fur parkas look stereotypical and do not represent the uniqueness of Yup'ik designs from this area. The designs on the parkas are too large and unsymmetrical with no distinguishable design, and the alngaqs on the girl's parka are not representative of the Yup'ik culture. There are two rows of two alngaq's shown on the parka. In real life, there are two rows of three alngaq's on the front and back of parkas, not counting the ones on the sleeves and elsewhere on the parka.

The mukluks shown do not have the usual trimmings. It appears that the illustrator's sense of awareness that our Yup'ik culture has its unique style in parkas and qaspeqs was not taken into account as she illustrated the story, although she spent many years teaching in this district in rural villages starting in the BIA days.

The picture of the moon is much too large for this part of the world.

4. If it tells a story that comes from my people, does it use language that does not change the context or the meaning? In other words, does the author know exactly that what he is saying is accurate information?
In this book that is that was written with a respected Yup'ik Eskimo elder, the language used partly represents the Yup'ik Eskimos. More information is needed on what specifically the "fall feast" was. There are more reasons why women pick berries, but the way the book was written seemed to suggest that the fall feast was the main purpose for the women to be picking berries.

5. Does it treat Native life as though it were simply a normal part of human existence? Does the writing have warmth and humor, and without any particular attempt to "sound" Native? Are there any particular values that the book brings about?
While the illustrations shows the characters as valuing good relationships and working together, the way the women sounded when they spoke was not fluent in English because their speech were written in an over-simplified style. "These berries are so dry." "These berries have no taste." "These berries are not even worth picking!"

6. Is the information accurate on the life and language on the people, with accurate phonetic spellings?
The information on the life of the people in this quliraq, or folk tale, is written in an entertaining yet meaningful way. However, the name of the main character, Anana, is written inaccurately in modern Yup'ik phonetic spelling. The root word for feces is "ana", and the way Anana is spelled would seem to suggest to a fluent Yup'ik reader and writer that it is a bad name. It should be spelled An'ana, which I believe the authors intended, because it is a common female name.

7. If it is a history book, does it tell how it really was for the People without any lies?
This book is not a history book, but it is a wonderful creation story of how the sweetest, juiciest berries came to grow on the tundra.

8. If written by a non-Native, does it mention in the preface that the author talked with any members of the People he was writing about to get the facts straight?
This book was co-authored by a respected Yup'ik Eskimo, and it mentions on the back of the book that this is a retelling of a very old story.

9. Are Elders valued and respected in the book?
This book mainly tells a story of a young girl who developed a plan to change the frown of the old women into smiles that involved a bit of magic. Not all old women are complainers, so this book only represents a small number of old women.

10. Does the book respect the culture of the people it is written about?
The authors of this book could have mentioned specifically what part of Alaska this story is about, so to omit information that the characters are Yup'ik Eskimos was a big mistake, rather than making it seem that the characters are of a generic Alaskan culture, if there ever is one. The illustrations are not specifically representative of the Yup'ik culture.

» HAIL Book Reviews