"In the early 1930's, Rose Wilder Lane, a journalist and an editor, persuaded her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, to chronicle her childhood in a pioneering family of the 1860's and 70's. The result -- the legendary 'Little House' series -- has introduced millions of children to the story of settlers pushing their way across the middle of a continent, working hard and enduring much to settle a ''new'' land. The books' endurance is almost as astonishing as that of the pioneers. The original nine titles, translated into some 40 languages, are still widely read and loved.

Now Louise Erdrich, the author of many acclaimed books for both adults and children, has embarked on a series nearly parallel to Wilder's and for the same audience of middle grade readers, but told from an altogether different angle. Drawing on her Ojibwe heritage and historical research, she has begun to tell the life story of Omakayas, a girl growing up in a small Ojibwe community in Minnesota in the 1840's and 50's. It is the story of a people who were in America before the white settlers came and who were driven from their homeland by the newcomers.

In these first books, has Louise Erdrich matched Laura Ingalls Wilder's achievement? I think so. She has created a world, fictional but real: absorbing, funny, serious and convincingly human."

Get the Story:
'The Game of Silence': Forced Relocation (The New York Times 6/19)
pwnyt

Relevant Links:
Louise Erdrich - http://www.harpercollins.com/authorintro/index.asp?authorid=2905

Related Stories:
NYT Book Review: 'Four Soul's by Louise Erdrich (07/07)
Book Reviews: 'Four Souls' by Louise Erdrich (06/28)
An interview with Ojibwe author Louise Erdrich (03/29)
Louise Erdrich: Writing and listening for crows (02/16)