The authors of 2017's Turtle Island, an Indigenous history of North America, team up again to give young readers another enlightening and engrossing history: that of Indigenous rebellion and survival. Eldon Yellowhorn, professor of First Nations studies and citizen of the Piikani Nation, and Kathy Lowinger, longtime executive director of the Children's Books Centre, seamlessly mesh their writing talents in What the Eagle Sees: Indigenous Stories of Rebellion and Renewal.
The duo frames their historic viewpoint from the beginning with "Eagle's Tale": "Eagle flies over everything, so he sees everything.... Eagle's feathers are part light and part dark. The history in this book is like an eagle's feather. Past centuries have been full of terrible, tragic events for Indigenous people.... The light, hopeful side is that against all odds we have survived." In nine chapters, Yellowhorn and Lowinger bring readers through some of these tragic events, starting with the Vikings ("we fight them off") and finishing with "Understanding the Past, Soaring into the Future."
What the Eagle Sees includes information young readers may be unlikely to see other places: while it covers World War II code talkers, it also tells of the mysterious Madam Sacho, who put her life on the line to help her people. Maps, illustrations, pictures and sidebars add to the already substantive offering, giving extra tidbits or asking readers--in "imagine" sections created by the authors--to place themselves inside certain situations. Yellowhorn and Lowinger take their own advice in this slim yet exhaustive book: "If you want to understand the past, keep Eagle's ways in mind. Take the long view, like Eagle does." --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness