Published by Roaring Brook

Summary:  Starting with the endpapers, which list all the Indigenous nations and communities in the United States, this book celebrates many different Native groups while showing the commonality they share in making and eating fry bread.  Each page starts with a statement about fry bread: “Fry bread is food”, “Fry bread is shape”, “Fry bread is sound”, followed by a few lines of poetic text elaborating on this idea,  shown in illustrations featuring a diverse group of children and their families.  The author shares his fry bread recipe at the end, followed by eight pages that give a lot more historical and cultural information about each page of the main text. 48 pages; ages 4-8.

Pros:  Although this is an excellent resource to share with young children, all the end matter also makes it a useful book for older kids and even adults.  The simple act of making fry bread is elevated to a unifying part of Indigenous cultures and heritage. The cute illustrations by Caldecott honoree Martinez-Neal will appeal to the youngest readers.

Cons:  The word “story” in the subtitle made me think I was going to get a story, but this is really more in the nonfiction category.

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