Eagle Song

By: Joseph Bruchac

Bruchac, Joseph. Eagle Song. Dial Books for Young Readers. New York, 1997.

This book tells the story of a young Native American boy, Daniel Bigtree. Daniel and his family moved to Brooklyn from their Indian reservation. They have been living in Brooklyn for two months and Daniel is having trouble making friends because people aren’t treating him fairly at school. He is being bullied because he is Native American. This is an obstacle for Daniel to face. He not only had to move from his comfortable life on the Indian reservation, he is being alienated by his peers. Daniel’s dad, Richard Bigtree, works a lot and is not able to spend a lot of time with his family. When Daniel does have the time to be with his dad, he tells his dad the problems that he is facing at school. Richard Bigtree suggests to Daniel that he come into his classroom and talk with his classmates about their heritage and how important it is to them. Richard hopes that this will show the students that it is important to embrace different cultures and heritages. However, it took some time for the students to accept Daniel. One of Daniel’s bullies, Tyrone, threw a basketball at his face while everyone was outside for recess. This took Daniel by surprise because he thought it was going to be better for him at school. After the incident happened, Tyrone apologized to Daniel and said that it was an accident. Daniel told him that he wanted to not be enemies and make peace between the two of them. Tyrone agreed and they set aside their differences.

This book was very interesting and engaging. The author has written many other books, all written very well. The issues that the author addressed in this book would be helpful to address in a classroom because many children would be able to relate to Daniel’s problems. The issue of Daniel feeling alienated from his peers is very relatable by students. They are able to see that it is not just them that suffer from this certain problem. It also lets the student have a personal connection to the character in the book, and when this happens it makes reading much more engaging. The text does a great job at informing the reader of Native American culture and heritage and how unique it is. This book would be a good to read to a class during a social studies unit on Native Americans because it tells the story of Aionwahta. This is a great story to read because it gives background information about the start of the Iroquois Indians. Another aspect of the book that was great was the sporadic use of Native American language. This is interesting for the reader because it lets them step into the world of Native Americans. There was a glossary and pronunciation guide in the back of the book for the reader to look up the words and see how they are supposed to be pronounced.