If You Lived With the Cherokee

If You Lived With the Cherokee
By Peter and Connie Roop, Illustrated by Kevin Smith
Scholastic, Inc 1998
Pages: 80
Reading Level: 9-12
Genre: Social Studies Non-Fiction

This book tells you exactly what your life would be like if you lived with the Cherokee. It talks about what you would wear and eat, how you would marry, what tools you would use, what you would live in, what games you would play, how to make a canoe, what jobs you would do if you are a girl or a boy, and pretty much anything else you can think of. When the Cherokee got married, they exchanged items. The man would give the woman meat to show he would always be a good hunter, and she would give him corn, to show that she would always tend to the crops. Then , they would move into the woman's house. The women could not be cheif, but were otherwise equal to men, and were considered the leaders of the family. The Cherokee didn't go to school, instead they were taught by their family and told were told stories about their history. If you were a Cherokee, you could change your name many times. You would be givin a name a few days after birth, but as you got older you sould change it to something you were good at, or an acheivement or quality. The Cherokee's life changed a lot when America was settled by the Europeans. They gained tools and weapons, but eventually lost their land and were driven out via the Trail of Tears.

I would recommend this book to an elementary school Social Studies teacher to read to their students. All students, and even adults like myself, would benefit from the knowledge in this book

This book could cause steryotyping between men and women.

For a non-fiction book, it was good. I don't really like non-fiction, but this book was more interesting than most.

My Rating: ***