LS 5903 MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE

Review of THE RANGE ETERNAL

A. Erdrich, Louise. THE RANGE ETERNAL. New York: Hyperion, 2002. Illustrated by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher.

B. PLOT SUMMARY

The young protagonist, who is not named in the story, tells of growing up on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota before electricity came to the area. She remembers with exceeding fondness the woodstove that was the center of the home and the brand name of the stove was “Range Eternal.” Wrapped bricks from the stove kept the little girl’s bed warm at night. Walking to school in the snow her mother digs out a hot potato from the ashes of the stove for the little girl and her siblings to put in their coat pockets. It keeps their hands warm on the long snow covered walk to school and later is a pleasant lunch. The little girl sometimes gets scared at night and thinks she hears Windigo the ice monster. Now the little girl from the story is all grown up and she relives much of her childhood with her son, showing him how to make soup as her mother did listening patiently as he cries out scared in his sleep. One day the mother that began the story as a little girl walks by an antique shop and sees a blue woodstove that looks just like the range eternal. She buys it for she, her son, and husband to enjoy.

C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS (INCLUDING CULTURAL MARKERS)

THE RANGE ETERNAL is a book whose acquaintance I was so thoroughly pleased to make. The oranges, blues, and yellow are interspersed in a beautiful array, sometimes bright, sometimes muted. The play of words is very unique; the woodstove truly named the “Range Eternal” by brand and the little girl thinking she sees many other types of ranges on the land and in the sky, the range of outdoors that is sacred to her people. The range she is running on while she daydreams. “I saw the range of the buffalo, who once covered the plains of North Dakota so thickly that they grazed from horizon to horizon. I ran the deer range, I ran the bear range. I galloped the range of horses. I loped the wolf range and fox range, the range of badger. I flew the sky, the range of herons, of cranes, hawks, and eagles. I saw the Range Eternal.”

The book overall is a very positive and authentic one. My major concern was that even though the book gives the name of a reservation and a state there is not a single mention of the name of their tribe. A review of the class literature states that is a very negative trait. I must admit that in the first few pages of illustration I almost wondered if the girl and her mother were Asian or Native American. The land and yard of the little girl’s home seems to go on forever with no neighbors in sight. The family is in some ways typical of growing up on a farm in general and certainly growing up on a farm in the Western United States. The characters are contemporary. They wear jeans, sweaters and boggins like other Americans when they go out in the cold and snow. They have a dog named Rex and in many ways seem like a typical family of the times. Authentic parts of the story slip in subtly as when the little girl tells of her favorite jam made from Juneberries. The animals mentioned are all indigenous to the area of North Dakota. All the characters in the story have black hair and brown eyes.

As Stott mentions in his book, NATIVE AMERICANS IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE (1995) the characters look like Native Americans and the illustrations work well to compliment the story. The book is based on a true story of Erdich’s mother growing up with a wood stove. The author has a few vague memories of the stove and on the last page of the book there is a picture of her mother sitting in front of the “real” Range Eternal. As the publishing house Oyate lists do’s and don’ts for teachers I find many positive aspects of the book that go along with the Oyate list; this Native American family is based in the present, there seem to be an equal number of traits specific to their Indian family and traits that would be similar to others of the day and time. The traditional values of the Indian people are displayed. The mother and father work hard and cooperate to meet the needs of their children. They have a comforting routine. Dad gets up first and tends to the fire in the woodstove by adding birchbark. As Mom awakens next she tends to many things at once. Her daughter is impressed that she can do so many things at once and use both hands simultaneously. Our young protagonist loves to hear the crackle of the kindling wood as she starts her morning at the breakfast table.


I believe the book is a huge success. The illustrations are realistic while still being whimsical as in the orange clouds appearing as buffalo running with the little girl. The hair coloring, skin tone, etc. are accurate but they are just vague enough so that any person “of color” with the exception of African Americans could see themselves pictured in a positive light. The story is excellent because it is specific to the land and times it portrays while also being accessible to anyone by portraying a traditional family and the fears of childhood. The feel of the book, the warmth from the stove, the little girl becoming one with the land and sky as she runs across her “Home of the Range”. Just as the little Indian girl sees the animals in the sky she sees the shadows from the flames casting pictures on the walls of her home as well, when no lights are on just the illumination of the woodstove. As the girl becomes a grown woman she teaches her son and her husband how to “enter the pictures” the way she used to do.
The land, the animals, and her family are sacred to the little girl. I would select or purchase this picturebook for anyone. I think it would speak to all peoples of all chronological ages. The book is warm and fuzzy while being truthful about the hardships of winter and the heat of the woodstove that was very uncomfortable in the summer when used for cooking.

D. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Publisher’s Weekly gushes, “Erdrich skillfully weaves family memories into a poignant and lyrical story of home and hearth….A young mother relates how when she was a girl in the Turtle Mountains, a wood-burning, enameled stove ("The Range Eternal" emblazoned on the front) provided the family with good soup, warmth and protection. As she looks through the stove's window, the girl sees in its flames "pictures of long ago" that conjure up a range of another kind ("I saw the range of the buffalo... the wolf range and fox range.... I saw the Range Eternal." Johnson and Francher (New York's Bravest) suffuse their breathtaking paintings with light-buffalo and deer gallop in golden clouds across the landscape; in a later painting, the steam from a pot of soup curls through the afternoon sun as the young mother longs for a "center of true warmth" like that of her childhood.”

School Library Journal concludes, “Dreamy illustrations in muted colors float across the pages with the texture of steam, wind, and shadows forming connections between past and present. This is a peaceful story of imagination, memories, and the ties among generations.”

Reviews accessed at: http://www.amazon.com/Range-Eternal-Louise-Erdrich/dp/0786802200/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-7575722-4136600?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184386878&sr=1-1

E. CONNECTIONS

Louise Erdrich has written many other stories of Indian families such as the picturebook GRANDMOTHER’S PIGEON. She also writes novels for older readers.

The idea of following a family for two generations is extremely well done in a poignant manner by Aliki in THE TWO OF THEM. This is a book featuring Greek American characters, another ethnic minority.