With so many Native American stories set in the misty past, it's great to read a children's book about an Iroquois boy who lives in the city now. Not that Danny Bigtree likes living in Brooklyn, New York: the other kids in his fourth-grade class taunt him and tell him to go home to his teepee, and he does miss the place where he didn't feel like an outsider. But there is pollution and unemployment on the reservation, and Danny's parents have come to the city to work. Bruchac weaves together the traditional and the realistic as Danny's ironworker father tells stories of his people's history and heroes, stories that give Danny courage to confront his schoolyard enemies and make friends with them. The purposive information and message are lightened by family jokes that mock solemn Hollywood stereotypes (Help me, my son) and show the loving intimacy between people who can tease each other and laugh together. Dan Andreasen's occasional full-page charcoal illustrations reinforce the sense of a sturdy schoolkid in the playground and at home, in touch with his roots. (Reviewed February 1, 1997)

When Iroquoian Danny Bigtree moves with his family from the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation to Brooklyn, he must cope with classmates who hold stereotypical views of Native Americans. Within the story, blatant and subtle stereotypes and misconceptions about Native Americans are addressed in a somewhat didactic matter. Black-and-white pencil sketches effectively convey the pain and joy experienced by Danny, his mother, and his father.

A rare venture into contemporary fiction for Bruchac (The Circle of Thanks, p. 1529, etc.), this disappointing tale of a young Mohawk transplanted to Brooklyn, N.Y., is overstuffed with plotlines, lectures, and cultural information. Danny Bigtree gets jeers, or the cold shoulder, from his fourth-grade classmates, until his ironworker father sits him down to relate—at length- -the story of the great Mohawk peacemaker Aionwahta (Hiawatha), then comes to school to talk about the Iroquois Confederacy and its influence on our country's Founding Fathers. Later, Danny's refusal to tattle when Tyrone, the worst of his tormenters, accidentally hits him in the face with a basketball breaks the ice for good. Two sketchy subplots: Danny runs into an old Seminole friend, who, evidently due to parental neglect, has joined a gang; after dreaming of an eagle falling from a tree, Danny learns that his father has been injured in a construction- site accident. A worthy, well-written novella—but readers cannot be moved by a story that pulls them in so many different directions. (b&w illustrations, glossary) (Fiction. 9-11)"