Kevin Noble Maillard

This book is everything. It’s the only way to put it. The story that could be read at story time is nice and sweet about how a special type of food is home, a memory, a loved one. The the back materials, everything from the recipe to the information about what each stanza or page means is astounding. It’s a history lesson in the form of bread. And It is thoroughly engrossing. The illustrations are lovely, and there is such thought behind each and everyone, which you find out more about show more as your read the back matter. This book was simply wonderful and needs to be in all library collections.
+16 #TBRread
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Fry bread is a common food found in many Native American homes and this book provides homage to how it brings people together.

This book, told in evocative language with just a few lines per page, stirs up pleasant feelings about how cooking as a family (or with friends) makes everyone happier. But it's not all sunshine and roses, as one page spread reminds about the hardships indigenous people have gone through. Still the overall vibe is positive in the main text, which is accompanied by show more gentle illustrations that also evoke warmth while displaying diverse people and including small details from several tribal traditions.

The book concludes with a lengthy and informative author's note, in which he breaks down each page spread with additional information about indigenous history (including current events/status) as well his own family traditions. In this author's note, Maillard also talks about the small visual clues that can easily be overlooked on the first time a reader goes through the book (e.g., how the names of people involved in the production of this book are seen "carved" into the counter on the final page of the main text).

This was an excellent book, and I definitely recommend it to others. Specifically, I recommend reading it more than once (including the author's note) as there are many details to absorb. show less

This was an absolutely beautiful book about family and community that focuses around fry bread, a Native American food with origins in colonial-induced deprivations in the last 150 years. This book was so warm and cozy and inviting. Maillard presented fry bread as something that is both common across tribes as well as unique to each tribe. The inclusion of every federally and state-recognized tribe in the US, as well as some groups that haven't managed to be officially recognized, in the end show more papers as well as in the story itself was so beautiful and really emphasizes the breadth of diversity that still lives on among Native Americans today. They are not a monolith nor are they extinct and Fry Bread does an amazing job of celebrating both of those facts. Definitely don't miss the author's note at the end, which provides some personal context from Maillard about his relationship to fry bread as well as some historical and contemporary context for some of the images and ideas present in the book. This was such a well-crafted book that I simply cannot recommend it highly enough. show less

Native American journalist Kevin Noble Maillard, a member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, makes his children's book debut in this lovely picture-book tribute to fry bread, a staple of many native peoples' diet. Using simple but poetic text, he explores the shapes, colors, sounds and flavors of fry bread. More importantly, he explores its role in the Native American family, and its importance as a symbol of Native American resilience. His text is paired with charming artwork from show more Caldecott Honoree Juana Martinez-Neal (she was honored for Alma and How She Got Her Name), and accompanied by an extensive afterword giving more information...

I have been looking forward to Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story since I first learned it was coming out, and am grateful to have been given the opportunity to read it a little ahead of its release date, later this month (October 2019). Unlike the other reviewers so far, this wasn't a five-star title for me, although I did find it excellent overall. I loved the ideas of this book, I loved the artwork, and I loved the detailed seven-page afterword, with its history of fry bread, and its information about some of the culturally significant objects used in the illustrations. I also loved the endpapers, which give an alphabet listing of all (I assume?) Native nations and peoples in the United States. All that said, the text itself, although serviceable, didn't particularly impress me, and while this didn't ruin the book for me (witness the four-star rating), it did prevent me from feeling emotionally involved in it, in that way I had hoped to be. Reactions vary, and I appear to be in the minority here, so I'd still strongly recommend this one, both to anyone looking for picture-books about food and family in general, or about Native American cultures specifically. show less