Hidden Roots

This is a fantastic book. I really like Bruchac's writing. The afterwords, which includes the historical details that the book is based on, is fantastic for anyone looking to teach about contempory native peoples. There is, also, lots of good information on the Abenaki's, which is excellent for teaching about New England and some Canadian native peoples.

Bruchac crafts a moving story of a young boy's experience in a troubled home. Sonny's father, Jake, is plagued by episodic anger and is a wife batterer. The reasons for Jake's behavior and ultimately, sadness, are revealed near the end of the book. Sonny's mother and Uncle Louis provide the nurturing that Sonny needs as he navigates adolescence including the difficulties of being bullied and excluded at school. Uncle Louis becomes Sonny's true life teacher as he is exposed to both the mysteries and extraordinary beauty in nature. Bruchac's descriptions in these scenes are to be treasured. The only failing in Bruchac's book is the odd addition of eugenic experimentation as the source for the explanation of the family `secret'. This plot twist is unnecessary and disrupts the wonderful flow of the story as Sonny discovers his true ethnic heritage. The reader would be helped if Bruchac could explore the history of eugenics in Vermont within a different story that provides a more complete explanation of what happened and who was affected. Tagging this on to `Hidden Roots' without a more thorough treatment is unsatisfying to curious readers. Overall however, "Hidden Roots" is a beautifully written story.