The Coming of Gray Owl

By Ida May Hobbs

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 093706209X
• ISBN13: 9780937062098
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Mesa Verde Museum Association
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Special significance to current events

We purchased this book after a trip to Mesa Verde National Park and it finally succeeded in turning my 5-year-old son's attention away from Star Wars and Bionicles! Instead of light-sabers and blaster guns, he wants to build a kiva, climb on ladders and make pottery. Yeah, he wants to make a bow and arrow, too, but at least those have historical significance and require real skill. Hobbs does a great job of intertwining descriptions of Puebloan skills and customs with a compelling story about how a boy from Mesa Verde befriends a boy from a feared nomadic tribe. As the visiting boy returns to his tribe, respectful of this different culture, the story leaves a hopeful message of friendship that has special significance for our country now. First published in 1987, this book entered its third printing in 2000. I hope it makes it to a fourth printing. My only criticism is the description of the people as "brown-skinned." I don't think the Puebloans would have considered themselves "brown-skinned," but rather, "flesh-tone." Caucasian immigration wouldn't start for hundreds of years. But this is a minor point. Ms. Hobbs, please write more stories of ancestral Puebloans!