Book Description

This colourful edition of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem 'The Song of Hiawatha' is specially selected with children in mind, tracing Hiawatha's life from his early years and his friendship with animals and nature spirits through his marriage to Minnehaha and his mission to teach agriculture and bring peace among the warring Ojibway, Dakota and other tribes along the US-Canadian border. The poem was first published in 1855 but is set in the age just prior to the first European settlers to North America. Profusely illustrated, the forty-eight colour and thirty-eight black and white images blend seamlessly with the hypnotic rhythm of Longfellow's famous poem, bringing the magical world of the American Indian - where dream and waking life were considered equally real - fully to life. The moon is a grandmother, a rainbow the place flowers go to when they die, dwarves (Puk-Wudjies) haunt the dark woods, and Hiawatha himself is the son of Mudjekeewis, the West Wind. Brief explanatory links between excerpted verses maintain the integrity of the story, giving even the youngest reader an understanding of the wondrous scope of this magnificent epic.