Description
Lana's Lakota Moons is the most recent children's novel by Lakota writer Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve. Set in contemporary times, the story revolves around the Lakota calendar as two sisters (cousins) deal with their different personal interests as they share their grandparents' Lakota cultural traditions. The narrator, Lori, finds her cousin-sister to be mischievous and often lazy. Lori is the bookworm and the two are always finding ways to challenge their grandparents' patience. Yet through all their small mishaps the girls manage to learn about their cultural traditions and the strength of the family as they share with a Hmong school friend and her refugee family. The girls assist their grandparents in the small vegetable garden, help their grandmother sew star quilts, and are honoured by their Lakota naming ceremony. The girls learn about powwows and the story of the jingle dress and this foreshadows the health problems awaiting Lana. This gentle story and the engaging personalities of the sisters combine to present a moving narrative about two preteen Lakota girls as they learn to deal with friendship, family, illness and death. The author provides a Lakota lunar calendar with the months translated into their English meanings at the beginning of the novel. Alert readers will note that each of the chapters follow this calendar with some small deviation as the girls' lives are foretold in each chapter title. Reading Level: 5.1. Museum of the American Indian Online Exhibit about Lakota Winter Counts: http://wintercounts.si.edu/htmlversion/html/whoare.html