Review Detail

MAKOONS by Louise Erdrich is the fifth book in a series about an extended family of Ojibwe. In this installment, the title character and his twin brother, Chickadee, join their family in a westward migration to follow the buffalo and to avoid living on the leftover land the US government is trying to force upon them.

Erdrich’s writing for the middle grades audience is everything it needs to be: simple, action-packed, and lovely. The characters are well formed, and even without having read the previous books in the series, I was able to immerse myself in the lives of Chickadee’s and Makoons’s family. Information on Ojibwe culture and language is shared in a way that enhances the story rather than feeling like a lecture on the topic.

MAKOONS would be a great addition to a middle grades classroom, and it would be a source of wonderful supplemental material for a lesson plan on the time period. Erdrich has won awards for her historical fiction, and it’s easy to see why. The research is detailed without being overwhelming, and it’s obvious that she enjoys telling the stories of these characters—who are based on members of the author’s own family. In fact, fans of the Little House on the Prairie books will love the Birchbark House series.