Description
Flying with the Eagle, Racing with the Bear is the reissue of noted storyteller and author Joseph Bruchac's 1993 edition. This anthology of legends were selected and retold by Bruchac around the theme of a boy's initiation or rite of passage ceremony. Organized around four culture regions: the Northeast, the Southeast, the Southwest, and the Northwest, Bruchac explains the significance of the number four in his foreword. Bruchac explains his reasons for selecting the stories that all deal with various cultures around North America and how these cultures teach lessons of living and development for boys of that culture. For the Northeast section there are stories about the Anishinaabe vision quest, and the Haudenosaunee story about a neglected boy who with advice from a wise woman defeats a great monster bear and receives the gift of medicine. These traditional stories about youth succeeding against great odds and learning to become men come from Wampanoag, Cherokee, Osage, Lakota, Tlingit, Cheyenne, Cherokee, Muskogee, Abenaki, Dine, Pueblo, and Inupiaq. This entertaining and instructive collection of 16 traditional stories in which young men must face great enemies, find strength and endurance within themselves to succeed, and take their place within their societies is highly recommended for school and public library collections. ATOS Reading Level: 5.3; Reading Level: 5.5; Lexile Measure: 810; Fountas & Pinnell Guided Reading Level: U.