It taste like saltypie

Title:Saltypie: A Choctaw Journey from Darkness into Light

Author: Tim Tingle

Illustrator: Karen Clarkson

Publishing Company: Cinco Puntos Press

Copyright Date: 2010

Pages: 40

Genre/Category: Multicultural/Indians

I chose this book because it seemed very interesting. This book is about the author’s family, moving from Oklahoma, Choctaw County to Pasadena, TX. He used the term "saltypie" meaning bittersweet experience in the life of his grandmother. In 1915, his grandmother was struck in the eye by a rock. She tells her husband about how their son reacted to the event and refers to the blood as "saltypie''. When his grandmother was a little girl, she lost her parents, was placed in an orphanage and wasn't able to go home for Christmas. In 1957, his grandmother had an eye transplant that was successful and she is able to see. Because she has never seen her thirty-two grandchildren, they line up one-by-one outside her room to meet her.

The illustrations in the book are done on double-page spread in watercolors and really helped move the story along. My favorite illustration was the grandmother as a child, standing alone with a bluish-black color surrounding her. The illustrations are awesome.

This book is recommended for second through sixth grade. November is Native American Heritage month. I would use it to help celebrate the culture. Using a blindfold, cover each of the students’ eyes to see how they function for 2-3 minutes, without actually seeing what they are doing. Look into My Mirror, Tell Me What You See is a lesson I used with my students, using family pictures or drawings to share the lives of each student family. This book has several awards American Indian Youth Literature Award, Picture Book category 2012, Honor Book, ALSC Notable Children's Book, 2011 Storytelling World Resource Award, 2011 Skipping Stones Honor Award, 2011 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People, and WordCraft Circle Children's Literature Award 2012