Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard

 

Fry Bread:  A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard

          Maillard, K. N. (2019). Fry Bread: A native american family story. Roaring Brook Press. (J. Martinez-Neal, Illustrator) ISBN 9781626727465

Fry Bread tells the tale of how a iconic Native food has helped shaped Native families and their culture.  Told in verse, Fry Bread is paired up with stunning illustrations by Juana Martinez-Neal.

Fry Bread is a simple story, but one that holds true. Each culture has food that is special to them and for good reason.  In Fry Bread, readers learn that fry bread came to be because of the limited resources Natives had once "strangers" came and supplies were limited.  Though the creation of fry bread was the result of struggle, it was then created and shaped to be something meaningful for their culture. Not everyone's fry bread comes out exactly the same, but that's okay because every fry bread is unique and their differences are meant to be celebrated, just like our differences should be celebrated in real life too.

In Fry Bread, readers learn about the history of fry bread, from the reason as to why it was created, to which parts of the world make it, to even having a recipe provided at the end!  In the book, the families portrayed by Juana Martinez-Neal (the illustrator) are of all different types of skins colors, hair types, and even eye colors and the reason for that was explained in the end of the book in the Author's Note, where Maillard explains how have a wide variety of features due to the intermingling of tribes with other tribes and with other cultures.  While the stereotype most people think of is dark hair and dark skin, that is not true, and nice to see illustrated in Fry Bread.  I also did like how the end papers of Fry Bread listed the Native American tribes in the United States.  All the images in the book are vibrant, happy, and create and overall welcoming atmosphere in each page of the book, and that adds to strong family values you get as you learn more about fry bread.

What do readers think of Fry Bread?   Kirkus Reviews says Fry Bread "is much more than food, as the book amply demonstrates" and it is "through this topic that includes diversity of so many Native peoples in a single story [that it] promotes unity and familiarity among nations."  If you enjoyed this title you may also like The Apple Tree by Sandy Tharp-Tee.  After reading, reflect on your culture and what foods are most important to you!  Once you have the food, learn more about the history of and and then make the food so you can share your culture with others.

Some of the Awards and Honors for Fry Bread:

• A School Library Journal Best Picture Book of 2019
• Winner of the 2020 Robert F. Sibert Medal
• 2020 American Indian Youth
• Kirkus Reviews Best Picture Book of 2019
• 2020 ALA Notable Children's Book
• One of NPR's 100 Favorite Books for Young Readers

References

Fry Bread. Kirkus Reviews. (2019, October 22). https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kevin-noble-maillard/fry-bread/

Fry Bread. Macmillan Publishers. (2021a, July 20). https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626727465/frybread

Literature. Kevin Maillard. (n.d.). https://www.kevinmaillard.com/general-4

Maillard, K. N. (2019). Fry Bread: A native american family story. Roaring Brook Press. (J. Martinez-Neal, Illustrator) ISBN 9781626727465