Bread Is Life: Reading Fry Bread for Understanding and Belonging

A community book review for the library newsletter 

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story 

by Kevin Noble Maillard, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal 

Roaring Book Press, 2019 

Grades PK - 2 

Lexile 530L-810L 

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story is a picture book about a Native American food staple that also includes many important aspects of life for Native people today. Author Kevin Noble Maillard, a journalist, author, and law professor at Syracuse University, as well as a member of the Seminole Nation, Mekusukey Band, wrote the book as a “poetic picture book tribute to a family tradition and a food with origins in the diaspora of Native peoples in the United States” (Grabarek, 2019, para. 1). 

At its heart, this book is a story about family, belonging, and the joy of gathering around a beloved food that each family member looks forward to on special occasions. The illustrations are colorful and engaging, and they include several “Native Easter eggs,” like family photos, symbols, and tribal patterns, which the author explains in his extensive author’s note (Graberek, 2019, para. 11). Each spread of the book covers a different aspect of fry bread, like the shape of the dough or the sound of it frying, but many also point to important cultural issues, like celebrations and festivals, customs and traditions, and geographical identity of various tribes.

The names and doodles in the cabinet represent various people involved in creating the book. The framed photograph is of the author's aunt. (Maillard, 2019, pp. 25-26)

The language of the book is simple enough that many early readers will be able to make their way through much of the text on their own. However, there are some words that adults will need to help with, including place and tribal names. Also, most children will recognize the familiar ideas of home, family, holidays, and meals in the text and illustrations, but the metaphoric language of “Fry bread is …” might be confusing. They also may not pick up on the clues about the racial diversity, cultural heritage, or tragic history of Indigenous people in the United States and throughout North America hinted at in the book.

This spread hints at the Trail of Tears, displacement, and land grabbing (Maillard, 2019, pp. 15-16)

If children do miss some of the deeper points in the book, on subsequent readings parents, caregivers, teachers, and librarians can use the author’s note to introduce young readers to these important issues and help them “in developing an appreciation for or an understanding of others different from themselves” (Wasta, 2010, p. 189). In fact, readers of all ages can find a lot to learn from this book through that author’s note, which “dives into the social ways, foodways, and politics of America’s 573 recognized tribes” (Kirkus Reviews, 2019, para. 2). 

The extensive Author's Note provides information about each spread, including historical and contemporary context, and explanation of some of the illustrations (Maillard, 2019, pp. 31-32)

This book, like others listed below, is important to include in our library's collection because it tells a compelling, contemporary story about an underrepresented group of people in our culture and offers a different, but well-documented, perspective about our nation's history that many Americans were not taught in school. The author’s note, as mentioned above, provides extensive context that other books do not. This story also provides a place for Native American children who live in our community to recognize their own families and customs in the pages of a book. According to the Civil Rights Commission of the State of Indiana, more than 25,000 members of federally recognized tribes live in Indiana (2023, para. 1). One of the reasons Maillard wrote this book was because he was looking for stories to read to his own children but “was having a hard time finding contemporary books about Native kids that weren’t about Thanksgiving or Pocahontas. Most were written by non-Natives, and all were about people that lived long ago, like some mythical vanished community” (Meizner, 2019, para. 3). Fry Bread, on the other hand, is primarily a story about Native families today.

Finally, this book makes a great addition to our library's collection because it has been widely reviewed and critically acclaimed, including winning more than 20 awards and recognitions. Among them, Fry Bread was named a Best Picture Book of 2019 by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, a 2020 Charlotte Huck Recommended Book, a Booklist 2019 Editor's Choice, a Shelf Awareness Best Children's Book of 2019, a Goodreads Choice Award 2019 Semifinalist, a 2020 NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People, a 2020 Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Books of the Year List, a 2020 ALA Notable Children's Book, along with being named a 2020 American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book and receiving a 2020 American Indiana Library Association Youth Literature Award. 

Read Fry Bread for yourself to see what a valuable addition it makes to our collection. Then read it to a child who’s special to you, your own son or daughter, a grandchild, or even a neighbor and talk about this important culture. Then connect it to your own family's tradition and customs. After all, "bread nourishes and comforts so many cultures, religions, and communities around the world" (Maillard, 2019, p. 37).

Other Books about Native People in our Collection 

We Are Water Protectors 

by Carole Lindstrom, illustrated by Michaela Goade 

Roaring Book Press, 2020 

Grades PK - 2 

Lexile 510L 

Told from the perspective of a young girl who is protecting the water from a black snake, this book speaks to the importance of water to Native peoples and calls for protecting water from harm. 

We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga 

by Traci Sorell, illustrated by Frané Lessac 

Watertown, 2018 

Grades PK – 2 

Lexile 970L 

This book follows a Cherokee family and their tribal nation through the year as they practice the custom of Otsaliheliga, a Cherokee word for expressing gratitude. 

Birdsong

by Julie Flett 

Greystone Kids, 2019 

Grades PK – 2 

Lexile 560L 

This book is about a Cree girl who befriends and elderly woman after moving from the country into a small town. It follows the seasons, introduces elements of loss, and includes Cree-Métis words in the story and in a glossary. 

References 

Civil Rights Commission, Indiana. (2023). Are there any Native American tribes in Indiana? State of Indiana. https://faqs.in.gov/hc/en-us/articles/360033547051-Are-there-any-Native-American-tribes-in-Indiana- 

Grabarek, D. (2019, October 8). Fry bread: A tribute to family and tradition | An interview with Kevin Noble Maillard. School Library Journal. https://www.slj.com/story/fry-bread-a-tribute-to-family-and-tradition-an-interview-with-kevin-noble-maillard-native-american-picture-books 

Kirkus Reviews. (2019, June 22). Fry bread: A tribute to family and tradition [Review of the book Fry bread: A tribute to family and tradition, by K.N. Maillard]. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kevin-noble-maillard/fry-bread/ 

Maillard, K.N. (2019). Fry bread: A Native American family story. Roaring Brook Press. 

Meizner, K. (2019, October 20). Kevin Noble Maillard discusses his deeply personal debut picture book, fry bread. Kirkus Reviews. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/kevin-noble-maillard-discusses-his-deeply-personal/ 

Wasta, S. (2010). Be my neighbor: Exploring sense of place through children's literature. The Social Studies, 101(5), 189-193.