The Turquoise Horse

The Turquoise Horse is the story of a young Navajo girl, Lisa Todachine, who discovers she is a poet. Her father, a silversmith, teaches her the importance of wisdom and how it is passed down the generations. Lisa comes to realize that the spoken poetry of her people imparts values that can be uniquely shared in this special way. Through the medium of silversmithing her father tells how he learned what was sacred when he was young and wondering about the nature of artistic pursuit. In school Lisa learns that sharing one's experience with others can be a way to learn about oneself. It is personal discovery combined with helping classmates to know who she is. In addition to learning in school, Lisa also begins to trust her unusual, personal and powerful, dream of The Turquoise Horse. When she realizes that the horse dream should be shared in the old way, as story or legend, she allows herself to believe in her ability to tell a story on her own. With the help of a folksinger who is invited into her classroom, Lisa learns that words are like the jewelry her father makes from turquoise and silver. In the end Lisa decides that she will become a poet whose words will be printed in books. Rather than turning away from Navajo tradition she chooses to follow it in her own way using poetry to tell stories.

Author: Gerald Hausman
Publisher: Irie Books
Published: 04/18/2017
Pages: 56
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.11lbs
Size: 7.00h x 4.00w x 0.13d
ISBN: 9781633843912
Audience: Ages 9-12

About the Author
Hausman, Gerald: - GERALD HAUSMAN, the author of more than 70 books for children and adults spent much of his adult life in New Mexico during which time he translated Native origin stories with Navajo artist and friend, Jay DeGroat. Many of these were aired on Navajo Nation radio station KTNN and The Turquoise Horse was included in the Junior Great Books international reading program. It is used in classrooms throughout the U.S. and in the twenty years since its first publication has become a classic in cultural learning for elementary and middle school students. His folktales have also been aired on the History Channel, NPR, and Pacifica Broadcasting. In 2006 the University of Washington Graduate Film School, (supported by Myra and Bill Gates Foundation and Pixar) created an animated short from Gerald Hausman's book, The Boy with the Sun Tree Bow. It has been used as a textbook for environmental studies in South America. Twelve of Gerald's other books are translated in foreign languages and The New York Times praised the anthology Tunkashila: From the Birth of Turtle Island to the Blood of Wounded Knee calling it An eloquent tribute to the first great storytellers of America. Other honors for Gerald Hausman's work are from the American Folklore Society, the American Bookseller, Children's Protective Services, the Bank Street College of Education, the National Council of Social Studies, the International Reading Association, Parent's Choice, The Ministry of Education of Jamaica, The New York Public Library Best Books, and CCBC Choices/Best of the Year. Gerald and his wife Loretta have done a number of animal books together and with Alice Winston Carney they have led a summer workshop in memoir writing at The Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, New Mexico, for the past nine years. Gerald and Loretta also founded Irie Books which publishes memoirs, children's books, poetry, biography and translations. Gerald's most recent book is Island Dreams: Selected Poems from 1964-2015. He has read his poetry at Harvard University, St John's College, the Kennedy Center, Fordham University, Queen's College and dozens of other universities nationwide.

This title is not returnable