Jingle Dancer - Hardcover

Smith, Cynthia Leitich; Hu, Ying-Hwa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 068816241X ISBN 13: 9780688162412

Publisher: Heartdrum, 2000

Synopsis

The affirming story of how a contemporary Native American girl turns to her family and community to help her dance find a voice.

Jenna loves the tradition of jingle dancing that has been shared by generations of women in her family, and she hopes to dance at the next powwow. But she has a problem—how will her dress sing if it has no jingles?

The cone-shaped jingles sewn to Grandma Wolfe's dress sing tink, tink, tink, tink.

Jenna's heart beats to the brum, brum, brum, brum of the powwow drum as she daydreams about the clinking song of her grandma's jingle dancing.

The warm, evocative watercolors of Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu complement author Cynthia Leitich Smith's lyrical text in this picture book. Perfect for classroom and library sharing.

About this title

From the Author:

Jingle Dancer shows many of the emotions and the meaning behind a powwow. In young Jenna's story, she is helped to bring together her regalia by beloved members of her intertribal community and then dances for them in return. Reciprocity, sharing, and respect are the core values. In addition, the characters reflect Native women doing traditional activities, like retelling stories, as well as mainstream activities, like practicing law. Yet that is not the only diversity reflected. Though the text makes no mention of it, the illustrations clearly show Native characters with European American heritage, in a couple of cases, and with African American heritage in others. I hope young readers connect with the richness of the powwow as a cultural experience as well as the love between Jenna and the important women in her life.

From the Back Cover:

Tink, tink, tink, tink, sang cone-shaped jingles sewn to Grandma Wolfe's dress.

Jenna's heart beats to the brum, brum, brum, brum of the powwow drum as she daydreams about the clinking song of her grandma's jingle dancing.

Jenna loves the tradition of jingle dancing that has been shared by generations of women in her family, and she hopes to dance at the next powwow. But she has a problem—how will her dress sing if it has no jingles?

The warm, evocative watercolors of Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu complement author Cynthia Leitich Smith's lyrical text as she tells the affirming story of how a contemporary Native American girl turns to her family and community to help her dance find a voice.

About this edition

• Publisher: Heartdrum
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 068816241X
• ISBN 13: 9780688162412
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 6
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Van Wright Cornelius