Member Reviews
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
This story starts out with a legend that was told by generations of the tribe. The sky woman landed and animals and birds helped her to land on a turtle.
They all came together to put dirt under her-mud and it created Turtle Island. So many morning ceremonies to give thanks. Love learning about the three sisters, i was growing ours in separate gardens, now i know differently.
Camping in NY during summer months and all the things they learned growing up. Love the garden and what it symbolizes to her and her children and how it effects them as they are planting gardens, far from home...
Wisdomisms are plentiful: only take what you need, thank earth, take half of what you need.
Knowledge gained: so much I've learned from readinng this book, about trees, gardening, weather, climate change and pay atteniton to the signs.
Love field studies, nothing better than hands on strawberry vines if you watch, witch hazel, 3 sisters, weaving cattails. learning braid sweetgrass.
Warmarsh shopping. hilarious! Such a super blend of scientific and honest to goodness down to earth explanations.
First learned of this book while attending an AARP bookclub meeting in Oregon.,
It was not the book picked for the next meeting but I liked the summary and sought it out at my local library.
A KEEPER for fun knowledge and tales.
Borrowed this book from Overdrive from my local library and via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.
Just as the author was pulled into plant life from the beginning, I was pulled into this book in the first chapter. The prose is fluid and the tone welcoming. I've never felt a particular kinship with plants per say, but after reading these first few pages, I want to. As a school librarian, I would love to add this book to our library. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the book when it is available.
I can't wait to see the final version of this book for young adults. I enjoyed the original book and the sample chapter here is nicely laid out for teens. The sample chapter is highly appealing and well written narrative nonfiction that young adults will appreciate.
What a gift!
I am blown away with how effectively Robin Wall Kimmerer's journey and heart for storytelling has been translated in this new version for young adults. Even as an adorer of the original Braiding Sweetgrass, I've found myself wondering if young adult shouldn't have been the real audience all along. Braiding Sweetgrass is thought provoking, timely, relevant, a joy, and should be required reading for anyone interested in the different ways in which we can relate to and be in relation with the world around us. So what a gift it will be to have a more accessible and visually engaging version of Robin's stories for our young naturalists, environmentalists, and Indigenous youth.
I am so thankful to have been given the opportunity to read an advance chapter of Robin Wall Kimmerer's "Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults" and eagerly await its full release this upcoming fall 2022!
I read the first chapter and it seems like this would be a worthy addition to any high school botany courses.
The first chapter of Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, is engaging, informative, and asks critical questions for the reader to ponder. Robin brings her family history into the chapter as she explores her experience entering into the forestry school at the university and facing cultural and scientific delegitimization by her freshman advisor. She weaves the scientific and personal in an engaging, narrative form that flows naturally and would engage any young reader.
I'm excited to purchase this book when it comes out in November for both myself and my class of incoming 4th graders!
I can not wait for the full book to be available so I can evaluate it for use in my classroom. I am so excited that a young adult version is going to be available, and the first chapter is just fantastic!
I read a little taste of a new book available soon, I loved it!
Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults
by Robin Wall Kimmerer; adapted by Monique Gray Smith; illustrated by Nicole Neidhardt
Pub Date: 01 Nov 2022 | Archive Date: 01 Nov 2022
This YF book explores the topic of botany through the eyes of a college student. You feel the excitement when he learns anything new about plants. The reader will learn while following him on his journey. I am looking forward to reading more of this book by Robin Wall Kimmerer. I hope you will too.
Braiding Sweetgrass is on my TBR, and this peek into the Young Adults edition was such a treat! I appreciate how Kimmerer encourages readers, from the very beginning, to stand strong in who they are and what they want to learn alongside introducing the overall theme of the book. My favorite quote from the sample chapter reminds us that while we can respect what science teaches us, it is not the whole story:
"Back to the questions that science does not ask. Not because they aren't important, but because science's way of knowing is too narrow for the task."
I have read the original of Braiding Sweetgrass and i am so glad they have made this addition. I like the added illustrations too. Can't wait to see the full thing once it is out!
Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for this sneak peak.
A great version adapted for younger audiences about an important topic. The author does a brilliant job sharing the wisdom of nature and the significance of our ecosystem in today’s world that I am confident our younger audiences will resonate with this message saying to us, “finally someone gets it!”
This excerpt was interesting and intriguing, and my kids and I enjoyed the illustrations. My wife enjoyed the source novel for this young adult version.
I read Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer just a few months ago. I recently found out that Monique Gray Smith is adapting it as Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults, which is exciting! Thanks to NetGalley, I was provided a sample chapter with illustrations by Nicole Neidhardt. I'm definitely going to be reading the full version once it is released in November 2022.
First of all, Neidhardt's illustrations are breathtaking, and coordinate perfectly with the text on the page. There are also photographs of different plants that are being discussed. I like that there are offset definitions of terms included in the prose, as well, to help the young adults reading the book to understand concepts that might be new to them. There are also offset discussion questions, to help the reader think critically about the text that they are reading. At the end of the sample, there are further discussion questions for even deeper critical thinking about the topics that were brought up in this chapter.
This is a sample chapter and it's just not enough to get a feel for the book. I look forward to reading the whole thing.
I have indigenous heritage. My mom does, too, but she rejects it entirely in favor of whatever gets her more attention. This sample chapter was a beautiful read, though I do wonder about the version for adults because I'm not into prompts. They're great for discussion in a classroom, but then I also didn't enjoy participating in those discussions as a primarily nonverbal autistic kid 🥲
I love the connection between plants and humans. I don't see us all as mammals or anything, but I do believe we are another achieve of nature and that nature is connected to each other. Each plant has a story. I often find myself wondering what plants would say, if we could talk to them.
Perhaps this book will help people think more like that, too.
I loved Braiding Sweetgrass and I think this book, adapted for classroom use, will be a wonderful addition to a high school, middle school, or homeschool curriculum. There are highlighted discussion questions, definitions, diagrams, illustrations, and reflections added to the already poetic and thoughtful essays written by Kimmerer in the original book. I think this will appeal to science teachers, parents who like to engage deeper in readings with their kids, and teens themselves. It's definitely more approachable to a young reader than the thick volume of the original. Don't get me wrong, the original Braiding Sweetgrass book evokes beautiful sensory experiences in nature, or deeply emotional issues through each essay-story. But it could look like a wall of words to younger readers. I appreciate this reworking of the beautiful original book with the target audience of younger people in mind. Our youth deserve to experience climate change through the perspective of loving earth and nature, rather than an unsolvable crisis they feel powerless to change. I think this book will be a great step in the direction of empowering our youth to stand for nature through the motivations of love and wonder.
I read the original edition of Braiding Sweetgrass in a Native American Literature class in graduate school and absolutely fell in love with it. I’ve taught the original edition to my students a few times (excerpts of certain chapters), but this edition, with the beautiful illustrations added, makes me more excited to include it in my curriculum than ever. Absolutely gorgeous additions to an already beautiful book. Very exciting!
Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults has me mesmerized in the short 7-page excerpt offered. I, too, asked a lot of questions and needed to know how everything works together, although not with an Indigenous lens. Tthe self-reflection questions in the sidebar are thoughtful. I look forward to reading the rest of the book.
Estimating this as 5-star
I can’t wait to read more of this and to have it available to my 4th and 5th graders. It is a beautiful text that reaches out to its audience, drawing on common human themes and experiences to relay the author’s message of identity and the value of interconnectivity.
I have read this already and the YA adaptation appears to be well-done based on the sample chapter that was provided. I could see this being used in Biology classes and in conjunction with Native American literature.