Native-centric telling of the Columbus story, in which it is made VERY CLEAR that Native people were living rich, full, active lives before Columbus came. Also, the reason that Columbus is in the Americas is because Coyote dreamed him up in a fit of boredom.
There's a lot of subversive stuff going on in the illustrations, too, like putting the Native people in jeans while Columbus and his crew wear Conquistadores-meet-crossdressing-Elvis outfits. Every aspect of the storytelling pushes the reader to identify the Native people in the story as unremarkable and familiar, while identifying Columbus as inexplicable, alien, and exotic.
Also, Columbus has very bad manners. Which includes thinking that he could enslave and sell people. I especially liked that King and Monkman manage to keep the tone humorous, without erasing the fact that Columbus himself committed atrocities.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-05-13 07:26 pm (UTC)I cannot express the depth of my love for this book (although I have certainly tried).
Native-centric telling of the Columbus story, in which it is made VERY CLEAR that Native people were living rich, full, active lives before Columbus came. Also, the reason that Columbus is in the Americas is because Coyote dreamed him up in a fit of boredom.
There's a lot of subversive stuff going on in the illustrations, too, like putting the Native people in jeans while Columbus and his crew wear Conquistadores-meet-crossdressing-Elvis outfits. Every aspect of the storytelling pushes the reader to identify the Native people in the story as unremarkable and familiar, while identifying Columbus as inexplicable, alien, and exotic.
Also, Columbus has very bad manners. Which includes thinking that he could enslave and sell people. I especially liked that King and Monkman manage to keep the tone humorous, without erasing the fact that Columbus himself committed atrocities.