Jingle Dress

Jenna dreams of being a jingle dancer like her Grandma Wolfe, but where will she find the four rows of jingles she needs to make her dress "sing?" The answer comes to her as she visits the older women of her community, from Great-aunt Sis, whose legs are not as strong as they once were, to Cousin Elizabeth, whose job as an attorney keeps her so busy that she sometimes has to miss powwow.

The story of a contemporary Muskogee (Creek) girl, Jingle Dancer was Cynthia Leitich Smith's first book, and offers a gentle narrative that emphasizes the importance of familial and communal bonds. I appreciated the message that sharing is the answer, when resources are scarce, and liked the reciprocity of the story. Jenna's elders each give her some of show more their jingles, and she in turn gives them her dance.

Like many other reviewers, I was impressed by this simple picture book, which depicts a young Native American girl and her community in the "here and now," rather than in some historical or legendary setting, and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good story-hour selection. The narrative flows smoothly, and is well-matched by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu's soft watercolor illustrations. show less

Debbie Reese recommends, because #OwnVoices; set in present-day; names the specific nation.
But all that is icing on the cake.
The reason to read this book is because it's a beautiful story about a community, about traditions cherished and passed down with love. Lovely art, too.

Jenna, a contemporary Muscogee (Creek) girl in Oklahoma, yearns to perform the jingle dance at the next powwow. Without enough jingles to adorn her dress, she respectfully borrows one row of jingles each from four women in her community—ensuring their dresses retain their voice. In doing so, she symbolically carries their support and traditions. The book weaves tradition and modern life, showing how community and intergenerational bonds help Jenna fulfill her dream.

This book would be a great choice for a read aloud for either primary aged students or intermediate aged students.
This book is about a young girl named Jenny that is part of a Native American community and loves the tradition of the jingle dancing that has been part of her family's traditions for many generations. Throughout the book, Jenny gathers jingles from different people throughout her family so that she can add the jingles to her dress and be able to participate in the jingle dance this year.
I would choose to read this book to my students because it is a great book for modern Native American culture and is written by an author who is part of the Muscogee Creek Nation and understands Native American culture and traditions. The show more book has a great theme while also showing a part of Native American culture that many people might not understand or know about, and takes away from many Native American cultural stereotypes that are present today. show less

I got this book because I like, if possible, to have a variety of books from a variety of views for my nieces to read. A book about a Native American girl *living today* (it's so easy for young children to get the impression that Native Americans either are all dead, or are about as real as witches and ghosts, because all they ever hear about them is in the past), written by somebody who probably knows what she's talking about? I had to try it.

The story is fairly simple - a girl wants to dance, and she finds a way to do so by getting other people to share with her. (And she works hard, too, practicing all through the last few pages!) It's a good story, and I love the artwork.

Age: primary / intermediate
Genre: realistic fiction

This book was a great universal story of a young girl asking her family for help making her dress, but it also described the specific traditions of American Indians and specifically the Muscogee tribe. It was very interesting and there was beautiful wording surrounding the time of day. I would love to have this book in my classroom.

This amazing book could really be used for any age group but I would choose to use it in an intermediate-level classroom. In this story, a young girl wants to honor her family's Muscogee (Creek) traditions by dancing in a powwow wearing a traditional jingle dress. In order to make the dress, she goes to important women in her life to ask for the jingles which showcases the importance of community and family. This story would be helpful to highlight important cultural traditions and it provides a more accurate in-depth viewpoint on what Native American culture looks like today which I really loved.