Marcia Keegan (1938–2016)

Brief Summary:
Text and photographs depict the home, school, and cultural life of Timmy Roybal, a young boy from the San Ildefonso Pueblo in New Mexico, who navigates his community's traditions (like the Corn Dance) while engaging in modern activities (like baseball and computers).

The book excels in this area by presenting Native American people of today, demonstrating that Timmy's life is not solely defined by the past. By showing his mother working as both a weaver and a computer show more programmer, and Timmy participating in both tribal ceremonies and school baseball, the book successfully avoids the common stereotype of portraying Indigenous culture as extinct or purely historical.

Ages: 9-12 show less

I enjoyed reading this book. This is because it is primarily an informational text presented through the eyes of a singular “main character”, rather than a textbook. The author depicts the life of Pueblo Indians by focusing on the life of a little boy named Timmy who lives in New Mexico. This book uses great perspective because it draws the reader in using a real life person who is about the same age as the students at the reading level of the text. The story parallels the lives of the show more readers by describing what life is like being a Pueblo Indian, but in the present day. The author shows how they celebrate certain traditions and holidays, but also touches upon what school life is like and how they have incorporated modern-day inventions into a culture highly based off of ancient practices. Additionally, the book compares Timmy’s interests to that of what a typical American student might be interested in. On page 9, it says, “Timmy’s favorite pastimes are pocket pool, which he plays at home, and fishing at a nearby pond”. This brings closeness between the subject and reader, since those sorts of hobbies are cross-cultural, and makes the reader want to know more about the differences and similarities between their culture and Timmy’s culture. Overall, this book pushes readers to view life from the standpoint of a Pueblo Indian and encourages them to recognize that all people come from different backgrounds. This book embraces diversity and sends the message to readers that they should be proud of who they are while valuing others from different cultures, with a specific focus on Pueblo Indians. show less

Timmy is a boy who lives in a Native American tribe in New Mexico, and he has the opportunity to learn the traditions of his tribe and the world outside of his tribe. Timmy goes to school, uses computers, rides a bike, and plays pocket pool. He also gets to see how his father makes Native American art, sees his mother weave belts, dance in ceremonials acts, and learns rituals that has been passed from a long time ago. The book reflects the native’s happiness, religion, art, agriculture, show more beliefs, culture, and way of life. The story shows how natives have adapted to the outside society. show less

This book tells about a the everyday life of a little boy who with a native American heritage. It tells about how he has two names and much like his two names he has a sort of double life. A "regular" one and one full of his traditions and how these two lives mix all the time and its really only one. The book also gives some background on the Pueblo people.

Review:

This book is good but extremely outdated. As I read it I could tell by the pictures that the book was at least a decade old show more right of the bat. None the less the author does a good job of following the boy around through out his day ad incorporating information and explaining traditions. show less