I am certainly not a Teen so I had to read this book with that in mind, and I have always been interested in Native Canadian culture. The book provided a very interesting historical look at the Algonquins while weaving a fictional story about a boy and his family. A story reasonably well told that should succeed in holding the Teen reader's attention and interest, although more akin to a textbook as opposed to a novel. All in all an enjoyable and informative read. ( )

Through Library Thing, I was provided with an Advance Reading Copy of this novel by the publisher, Dundurn in return for an honest review.

The information at the beginning of this ARC states “This book paints a vivid picture of the original peoples of North America before the arrival of Europeans.” Actually, I would venture to say that this book paints a rather bland picture. I found it dry and tedious to get through; it read like a text book to me rather than like an exciting story of the Algonquin peoples.

We were told that the target group for this novel is young readers at the elementary school level as part of their curriculum on Native History. My sons both studied Native Canadians in Grade 4 and I could not imagine them having enjoyed this book as it is written. It seems to be a series of incidents rather than a story and perhaps would have been better as a series of short essays rather than an attempt at a novel.

Like many of the previous reviewers I found that the book cries out for proper editing. I was immediately worried when I read the third sentence in the author’s note which reads “Out of ignorance and lack of information a lot of people have no idea who we are as Natives.” This seemed redundant and it sent me off to my dictionary to confirm that ignorance is lack of information or knowledge.

The book is filled with grammatical errors. One sentence reads “Hochelagans never usually wander far from their fortified village.” It is my understanding that never is an absolute. Never means never, not usually. There is also frequent misuse of pronouns eg. I and me, (“At first light me and Oazawa Onik split the camp into two groups”) and spelling errors like “boar” instead of “bear”. From paragraph to paragraph the tenses change, one moment Mahingan is speaking in the present tense, the next paragraph in the past tense, sometimes in the same sentence (... he crawled into our shelter, lies beside me, and whimpered…”.) It was very confusing. Hopefully these grammatical errors were corrected before this actually went to print.

Many details are repeated just a few pages apart and this was glaringly obvious to me and eventually became quite annoying which distracted me from the story. For example on pg. 16 the author states “The dogs were brought along to help run down any game we found, to guard the camp, and also to help carry what we killed back on a travois when we had enough for our needs. As a last resort the dogs were also used for food if our hunt turned out to be unsuccessful.” Then on page 33 he states “Dogs are an important companion for the Omamiwinini because they serve many purposes for us: beasts of burden, hunters, camp guards, and food in times of near starvation.”

There are also some oddities like “Mitigomij led Wagosh and I with Ishkodewan following on a rope to the river. We had to be careful in our haste, so Mitigomij could keep up.” If Mitgomij was leading then he would not be ‘keeping up’. And one that really made me laugh was ‘”Kag was a fierce warrior and had a dent in his head from a Haudenosaunee (Iroquios) war club many years ago. The wound had long since healed, but he still suffered at times from unexplained head pain.” Really, I think maybe I have an explanation!

The other thing that I found extremely distracting was the authors use of actual Algonquin words for many things and yet not for others. This also became very annoying to me. Why translate squirrel and rabbit and not fruit and nuts? Then there was the inconsistent use of the Algonquin or the English words from then on.

Having said all of the above, I did find that I learned quite a bit about the Algonquins and that was quite enjoyable. Learning details about the hunts, the games of lacrosse, the partnerships of different tribes was all interesting information.

This has the potential to be a good book but it isn’t quite there yet. Loved the cover!
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Amended: after communication with the author I found out something I did not know. Boar is a male bear. I was unaware! ( )

From an anthropological point of view, this was a good book that covered history and the day-to-day life of a traditional Algonquin tribe before the Europeans arrived. There are details of hunting, myths, warfare and family ties.

Unfortunately the story that threads the facts together is lacking in depth with no real arc to speak of. The books ends abruptly and is ultimately unfulfilling. ( )

I found I Am Algonquin by Rick Revelle to be a fascinating look at the life style of the Algonquin Indians during the 14th century. The story follows a war leader called Mahingan and his small tribe as they hunt game, meet and make peace with their allies of the Nippissing and Huron nations, and battle their fiercest enemies, the Iroquois.

Told in a straight forward, factual style the reader gathers a lot of information about this tribe whose territory consisted of large parts of the eastern woodlands that today make up Ontario and Quebec. Unlike the Iroquois who lived in large towns and raised crops, the Algonquin were nomadic and most of their time was taken up in hunting and gathering supplies for the winter. But their strong family bonds come across during the telling of the story, and they did take time out for enjoyment and laughter.

I was a little disappointed with the abrupt ending of the book as it left the reader hanging, but I suspect the author plans on writing further books about this warrior and his family. I Am Algonquin is a YA historical fiction story that I think would appeal to anyone who is interested in the North American history. ( )

I recently finished reading "I Am Algonquin", my Early Reviewer book for June.

It wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't very good either. I think the author's sloppiness in writing was a big part of why I did not think highly of this book. While much of the story is told in first person, through the eyes of Mahingan the young chief, the point-of-view sometimes would change in the middle of a paragraph. It was confusing and frustrating, trying to follow the story.

The grammar was atrocious at times, and I hope that it is corrected, along with the perspective continuity.

The author also chose to use the Algonquin names for everything. However, reading sentences like "Mahingan used his mokoman to skin the esiban" gets wearing after a while. At times I felt that the author was trying to impress the reader with his knowledge of the subject.

Finally, for a story being told mostly in first person, the parts in which Mahingan mentions what will happen in the future were incongruent with the narrative.

It was a nice idea for a book, but very poorly executed, in my opinion.

Note to editor: add a map in the final draft, so the reader can figure out where the tribes are located. ( )