This book was categorized as Teen/YA, but I felt this book should have been categorized as Juvenile Non-fiction. I felt the title was misleading; I was expecting a compilation of oral stories, which had short variations of it. It had more archaeological facts/information. However, I did enjoy the author's take on discrediting those archeological facts with oral stories. I enjoyed those oral stories, I wish there was more of it.

This was a nice and comprehensive look at the first tribes before Columbus "found America" but it just didn't read well. It was dry and didn't really flow well for me. Also, it downloaded weird onto my Kindle and had the headers in the middle of a paragraph so you sometimes had to figure out what was going on due to that. Regardless, it was a good book on the tribes of the American continent.

This book was such an informative and interesting read. Combining oral history and stories, archaeological research, and historical records this book goes through the different groups of people living in the "New World" and how they lived before Europeans came and how their coming changed things. I loved reading this story and know that people can learn a lot from it.

A history of North America as told by the people who lived there since before Columbus's fateful blunder.

Even though thousands of years have gone by, we have ways of stepping back into the past...

See this review with pictures on my blog here:
https://chrikarublog.wordpress.com/2017/10/25/book-review-turtle-island/

This is beautifully-illustrated and could fit easily into the 'faction' category where you have a factual book, presented with illustrations you might expect in a fiction picture book. I really enjoyed learning more about some of the bits of history I already knew about, as well as finding out more. I particularly liked how multiple perspectives are provided and it is recognized that there was no unified 'Native American' or indigenous culture, despite common traits being a respect for the environment and nature.
The tone of the book changes substantially with the arrival of the Europeans and the subsequent decimation of the indigenous population thanks to smallpox, influenza and other illnesses. This is followed by a sickening list of the relentless discrimination that indigenous people faced from the massacre at the Battle of Wounded Knee to tribes being separated from their ancestral land.
Overall, a fascinating, informative read which will lead many bookworms into further investigation of the rich heritage and history of Turtle Island.

What I liked: The way archaeology, mythology and imagination were tied together to really engage the reader in multiple possible perspectives e.g. presenting some Scientific evidence, followed by a traditional story that is linked to it, then a piece of creative writing inviting children to imagine themselves in the shoes of someone who lived at that time. I also liked how the author talked about the loss of linguistic diversity and what that means for an orally-transmitted culture.

Even better if: It is clearly designed as a book to dip into, or be used as a textbook alongside a course of study so I did not find it the easiest to read from cover to cover. I would have liked even more photographs and drawings of people to allow readers to make stronger connections to the people being discussed.

How you could use it in your classroom: Pick out chapters that are relevant to what you are learning in the classroom in order to provide another perspective or make links with mythology and imagination.

Turtle Island: The Story of North America’s First People was an incredibly educational read. It’s aimed at children, but I think it’s a good start to further reading for anyone.

Goodreads synopsis: Unlike most books that chronicle the history of Native peoples beginning with the arrival of Europeans in 1492, this book goes back to the Ice Age to give young readers a glimpse of what life was like pre-contact. The title, Turtle Island, refers to a Native myth that explains how North and Central America were formed on the back of a turtle. Based on archeological finds and scientific research, we now have a clearer picture of how the Indigenous people lived. Using that knowledge, the authors take the reader back as far as 14,000 years ago to imagine moments in time. A wide variety of topics are featured, from the animals that came and disappeared over time, to what people ate, how they expressed themselves through art, and how they adapted to their surroundings. The importance of story-telling among the Native peoples is always present to shed light on how they explained their world. The end of the book takes us to modern times when the story of the Native peoples is both tragic and hopeful.

My rating: 4 stars.

Review

As I said, I learned a lot from this book. I loved that it went back all the way to the Ice Age and explained different archaeological methods for learning about the past, instead of just telling you the information gotten through those methods. I think it’s interesting to learn about how we know about history, as well as just learning about history itself.

There is so much I didn’t know about the indigenous people of North America. A few fun facts I learned from this book:

One of the longest existing civilisations in the history of the world existed in North America (the Honokam people, near modern Phoenix, Arizona).
Another North American civilisation, the Anasazi in Chaco Canyon, created apartment buildings.
The Vikings didn’t just leave America of their own accord; they came there to settle, but were probably chased away by the Thule people.
I also learned a couple of not-so-fun facts, like: it wasn’t the Europeans’ ‘superior technology’ that killed so many Native Americans, because their guns were way too slow to load, but the illnesses they and their pigs brought with them. (I already knew the illnesses were deadly, but until now I’ve always heard it told as ‘guns and germs’.)

All in all, I think a lot of people could learn from this book. If you know/are a child with an interest in history, archaeology, or different cultures, I highly recommend Turtle Island. I also recommend it to anyone who’d like somewhere to start learning about the indigenous people of North America.

Timelines are depicted throughout with questions and answers. Fascinating facts are also given as well as unique inserts like a day in the life... for a variety of indigenous peoples throughout North America.
The variety of illustrations, from pictures of sculptures, excavation site digs, maps, to beautiful imaginary illustrations add to this highly recommended recourse.

***This book was reviewed for Annick Press via Netgalley

Turtle Island is a well-written middle-grade condensed history of the First Peoples of America. There were indigenous populations of people in the Americas long before Columbus, or even Leif Eriksson. Previously thought to have crossed from Siberia, over the Bering landbridge, we are now learning these ancient populations followed other routes as well.

This book starts out with the Creation myth Turtle Island and Sky Woman, and follows a loose history of indigenous people, all the way up to the modern day, and throughout North and South America alike. I loved the artwork, pictures, and interspersed myths. One thing that stuck with me, and for which I am thankful, is that they pay proper homage to the indigenous peoples for having created their own monuments and mega-architecture. Nothing irks me more than 'we don't know where Monks Mound, Pueblo Bonito, Temple of the Sun, {insert other large FP building or mounds works} came from. The natives couldn't have built them. Europeans must have done, or else been here earlier and shown them how.’ I have read similar notions in several publications and it angers me every time.

This is a great introduction for middle-grade readers. Personally, I think it would be a great companion for teaching history in schoolrooms.

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It's clear from the variety of fonts in the eBook that this will have sort of a text-book-y layout. It does work as a read-it-cover-to-cover book, but my guess is more students will use it for a chapter or two, for a citation/assignment. It covers a very wide geographic area and time frame and doesn't go into very much depth. Maybe it's intended as sort of a starter book; it's a very general introduction to the history, with not very much detail. I've been trying to guess the age of the intended audience, but I recognize my impression of what's typical for any age group is colored. Maybe 2nd-6th grades? Not really recommended.

Too many books about the Indiginous people of North and Central America take place after first-contact, after the Europeans have come and "discovered" them, as though they needed to be found.

This book, based on myths, and archeological digs, and stories that the elders have passed down, is the story of the people of Turtle Island, one of the names given to the North American continent by some of the First Nation people. The stories of these people, go from the time that they first came to Turtle Island in the last great Ice Age, to the year before Columbus came, bringing death and the end of a way of life that had been going on for thousands and thousands of years.

Each section explains how we know what we know, and what life was like back then. The saddest part, is the last chapter, with assimilation, and residence schools.

This should be a text book in all classrooms, and I hope it is. This is the story that needs to be taught.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

I was unable to finish this book due to formatting issues! What I did read sounded very informative and might be a good spring board for someone just learning about Indigenous folks when the formatting is corrected.

This was a very good book written in an easy-to-understand manner (middle-grade level I would guess) that tells the human history of the lands now called the Americas (especially North America) through an Indigenous lens. It is very refreshing to see a non-settler take on this history, as, unfortunately, these perspectives are rare to find in published books.

The use of legends and oral histories to flesh out archaeological evidence and provide insight into what life may have been like for people thousands or tens of thousands of years ago was a nice touch. I also appreciated that to book took time to address the fact that the commonly accepted timeline for human settlements of the Western Hemisphere (14 000 years ago) may be wrong, and cited multiple archaeological sites which suggest there could have been people coming here from places other than Beringia.

The one part I didn't enjoy so much was the "imagine yourself as..." parts, but this is mostly personal preference, and I recognize that as an adult I am not the target audience for this book and especially not these sections.

Overall I would be very happy to hear that this book was being taught in schools here. It shows that issues facing Indigenous people today and their histories can be taught at age-appropriate levels, and that the subject matter is not too mature or complex for younger minds to grasp.

This book delves into Indigenous life on Turtle Island, as it explores history, myth, archaeology, etc, to provide a rich, colourful picture to young readers of all that has changed on these stolen lands.