Chickadee (Birchbark House, 4)

The first three books in Louise Erdrich’s The Birchbark House series take Omakayas from seven years old in 1847 to twelve in 1852 and her family from the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker in Wisconsin to the magical forested islands and lakes of Minnesota. The fourth book, Chickadee (2012), jumps forward fourteen years to 1866, when Omakayas is married to Animikiins (first known as Angry Boy) and the mother of eight-year-old twin boys, Chickadee and Makoons (Little Bear), and the foster mother of Zozie, the daughter of her cousin and childhood rival Two Strike. The story depicts what happens to the loving, closely-knit family and the inseparable twins when Chickadee is kidnapped by a buffoonish and muscular pair of mail-delivery brothers Babiche and Batiste and taken far away. The novel proceeds in multiple point of view strands, one depicting Chickadee on his own, the others the different family members searching for him or waiting for him to return.There is much humor in the novel. Chickadee’s misperception of Catholic Sisters, Mother, and Father as a strange family is cute, as is his observation of the two brothers Babiche and Batiste who love each other as much as Chickadee and Makoons love each other and are comical rather than hateful:“Your fist is hard,” said Batiste. “And as large as your own head.”“Har, har, har,” laughed Babiche. “You are very funny, my brother.”Chickadee is an authentic boy, as when he regrets his name:“Why couldn’t he have a protector like the bear or the lynx or the caribou or the eagle? Why was he singled out by such an insignificant little bird? He had a sudden thought that appalled him--he would be a grown man and still be called Chickadee! What kind of name was that for a grown warrior? He groaned.”Luckily, he has a wise great-grandmother, Nokomis, who tells him about his namesake:“He is a teacher. The chickadee shows the Anishinabeg how to live. For instance, he never stores his food all in one place. . . . The chickadee takes good care of his family. The mother and the father stay with their babies as they fly out into the world. They stick together, like the Anishnabeg. . . . The Chickadee is always cheerful even in adversity. He is brave and has great purpose, great meaning. You are lucky to have your name.”The moments of Chickadee’s culture shock, whether seeing for the first time the prairie (“Where were the trees? Where were the hills? And again, where were the trees?”) and a city (“This mouth, this city, was wide and insatiable. It would never be satisfied, thought Chickadee dizzily, until everything was gone”), or hearing for the first time violins (“the crying music that sometimes skipped and sometimes wailed”) are fine.And the twins’ love for each other is poignant: “Chickadee and Makoons curled together under one fluffy rabbit-skin blanket. Warm and full, lulled by the grown-ups’ voices, they fell into a charmed sleep and dreamed, as they always did, together.” So it is all the more painful when they’re separated, and when one brother is eating he tries to imagine what the other is eating, and when one brother is falling asleep with a painful chest he says the name of the other.There are moments of vivid life in the novel, as when “Animikiins drew his knife and sliced out the moose’s tongue and liver. He brought both into the shelter, heaped snow against the opening, and ate a bloody, raw, satisfying meal before he dozed off to sleep.”However, apart from some vivid details about the Metis community (mixed race Indian-whites who enjoy fiddle music, singing, and dancing and colorful clothes and go on long buffalo hunting trips in ear piercingly noisy wagons made completely out of wood), and a neat explanation of why the Ojibwe don’t point at people or things, the level of absorbing and authentic detail illustrating how Ojibwa lived in the mid-19th century, developing the characters, and making the previous three novels in the series so outstanding, is lower here.Another noticeable lack is Bizheens, Omakayas’ beloved adopted baby brother who plays a neat role in the second and third books. In The Porcupine Year (2008) Omakayas thinks, “He was the best thing that had ever happened to her, ever . . . this little brother who adored her no matter what she did.” So where is he now? Her other family members from the previous books are present: grandmother Nokomis, mother Yellow Kettle, father Deydey, big sister Angeline and her husband Fishtail, younger brother Pinch/Quill, and cousin Two-Strike. So what happened to Bizheens, who should be about sixteen by now? Did Erdrich want to focus on the twins and so removed Bizheens from the family and the series without bothering to write an explanation? How dissatisfying!The novel is the shortest in the series so far, and is a less is more work, so much so that there isn’t enough of it, too few characters making their presence felt, so that, for example, I forget about Yellow Kettle till she says something suddenly out of the blue, so that I want more of the ever fierce loner Two Strike (I love the scene where she lets Omakayas hug her after promising to retrieve Chickadee), and more of Nokomis, Deydey, and Angeline.And I wished for more Omakayas! After developing her so much as the appealing protagonist in the first three books, with her hearing voices of spirits telling her what to use for medicine, being in tune with bears, having a crow pet, being a natural healer, and having dreams that help save Deydey’s life as well as a vision of her future life, in this fourth book she’s just a loving and worried mother with too few compelling traits and point of view passages.But much of my disappointment in the fourth book is due to the excellence of the first three in the series, and readers who liked them should like this one (though readers new to the series should begin with the wonderful first book, The Birchbark House).**I read the Kindle version and found no typos in it.**

Chickadee is resourceful, loving and strong, and so is his family. And the details of life during a cultural transition are encouraging as we all face the massive changes in our world from spoiling the biosphere. This tale is also a love story for our relationship with all other life forms, and the wisdom we gain when we listen with humble and open hearts.I think this book is marvelous for “tweeters” to adults. Would be a great family read-along.

This series has been my 10 year old son's favorite bedtime read for more than a year now, and we're eagerly awaiting book #5 due to come out this August. We only wish that all of the years between the Porcupine Year and Chickadee hadn't been fast-forwarded.. we would have loved to see the courtship and marriage of Omakayas and Animikiins and the birth of their children. I don't think we were ready for her to be a mother yet! But that's just a fan's wish... this series gives us a window into Native culture that we never had before, every book is a must-read and should be a required part of curricula all across the United States.

This is a beautifully written book about a Native American boy and his family, including his twin brother. I bought it for my 9-year-old son to read, but I enjoyed reading it as well. The illustrations are wonderful. I learned a lot about the Native American way of life and would recommend this book to children and adults alike.

Not as good as the first three, too grim

But I must admit that I liked the books in the Birchbark House series that came before this one a little better. It may be because the main character is different in this one (a boy, the son of the previous main character, a girl), or because I missed the lake/island setting, or because I missed the great character of Old Tallow (Two Strike is almost as good)! Not sure what it was that made this book seem a tad bit flatter. I still really enjoyed it but absolutely LOVED the other books in the series.

I've been reading this series with my granddaughter, who turned seven three months ago. She loves to listen and is inspired to take up sewing her own mittens with sheepskin and velvet and old felted sweaters I've been saving up for just such occasions. The practical information is interesting, and the respect for nature and the spirituality of all things really meshes with my granddaughter's own inclinations. She clearly resonates with the story, making the expressions she associates with each of the characters when an emotion is expressed. It's really a joy to share them with her. Thanks to Ms. Erdrich!

Erdrich's wonderful multi generational saga continues in this book, which is easily the funniest thus far in the series--without losing any of the emotional intensity or cultural integrity for which she has become so well-known in all her work. It's he book for young readers that is just as rewarding or anyone of any age whovwishes to know more about Anishinabe culture, history, and family dynamics and be entertained in the process.

I use this well written culturally nuanced and child development authentic rendition for my teacher candidates to learn about Native American childhood experience history....as a counterpoint to the Laura Inglis Wilder books that all are overly familiar with ...the American mythos that inapproriately renders the First Americans invisible and disappearing celebrating genocide in the Americas.....Erdrich provide a more truthful version of North American history from the perspective of Native Americans...esp. children need to read this..

The whole birchbark series is beautiful. Just read it!