I love this book. To me it is writing in a song format and it explains why the ghost dance is happening. It also tells the story of some truth of how the Native American story went and is so common. This can be a great opener to students on the history of Native Americans. ( )

Author Alice McLerran and illustrator Paul Morin write and draw ‘The Ghost Dance.’ It is a children’s book about Native American tribes’ way of life being threatened by the Europeans who came to the lands and hoped to find peaceful solutions. Morin makes use of many items used in daily and ritual means as its pictures. There are also depictions of people dancing, in what is called the ghost dance. The ghost dance was a ritual that spread through the tribes and was intended as a form of nonviolent expression in spreading peace between them and the Europeans settlers. They hoped it could help them put a top to the destruction of the forests and pushing the animals of the land into extinction. But these dances were assumed to be a war dance by the Europeans. They attacked the tribes and continued destroying the land. McLerran tells how despite their misunderstandings the Native Americans still hope there can still be peace in the world. After going over what the theme in stories mean and represent, and reading this book as an example, the book can be used part of a lesson in having the children consider what they think the theme behind a story would be. ( )

Summary:
This book is based on the Native American ritual of the "Ghost Dance". It is written about the late eighteen hundreds. It is about when the "White man" was taking away the land the belong to the Native Americans. Tavibo the prophet called for the Native Americans to perform this dance in an effort to make all the "White men" leave the land alone. This was seen as a war dance and the outcome would be the loss of more Native Americans.

Personal Reaction:
I really liked this book. It is written to show the peace the Native Americans were looking for. The notes in the back of the book written by the author Alice McLerran and illustrator Paul Morin give a lot of insight into the research they did on this subject.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. Students can draw a picture of what they think the "Ghost Dance" would have looked like.
2. This book can be used when talking about different cultures. ( )

Native people do a ghost dance in order to replenish the live stock that the white men have killed and left behind. The only way the ghost dance will work, and get rid of all the white men, is for everyone to stand up and dance for what is right. This is a great book for a read aloud because it shows a different culture’s perspective and it teaches history. The illustrations are well done, because on each page there are pictures of items that belong to the Native American culture. These illustrations give us a point of view of Native American people in order for us to understand their lives and culture. ( )