Module 4 - JINGLE DANCER by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Bibliography
Smith, Cynthia Leitich. 2000. JINGLE DANCER Ill. Cornelius Van Wright & Ying-Hwa Hu. New York, NY: Morrow Junior Books. ISBN 10-068816241X

Plot Summary
A young, contemporary Muscogee Creek girl in Oklahoma named Jenna longs to honor a family tradition by jingle dancing at her tribes next powwow.  The only problem is she needs to collect enough jingle bells to make her dress.  As she visits her some of the women in her family and community she asks to borrow enough jingles from them to make a row on her dress.  She is helpful to them and they ask her dance in the next powwow for them.  Jenna practices her "bounce steps" and helps her grandmother make the dress in time to dance for her family that weekend.

Critical Analysis
Smith, a mixed-blood member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, portrays the life of a young Native American girl  living in a contemporary neighborhood while carrying on the traditions of her people.  Smith seamlessly weaves the two lifestyles together with the help of Van Wright's and Hu's illustrations.  Jenna watches her grandmother do the traditional dance at a powwow on videotape while she does the same steps on her family's living room floor.  She borrows one row of cone-shaped, tin jingles each from her Great-aunt whose "legs don't work so good anymore," her neighbor who sells fry bread during the powwow, her cousin who had a big case to work on, and her Grandmother who helped her sew all the jingles onto her dress.  Smith's writing evokes an ancient time period as she refers to the sun and moon as proper nouns; "Moon kissed Sun good night."  Smith explained the time of day through poetic statements like this about the placement of the sun or moon in the sky.  Smith also includes the cardinal directions and the sacred number 4 in the story to add to the authenticity.  Jenna heads East to visit her Great-aunt and South to see Mrs. Scott; she visits 4 women and gets 4 rows of jingles for her dress. Smith includes an author's note and a glossary at the back of the book to tell more about the Muscogee Creek Nation, their traditions, the dancing, the regalia (costumes), and the importance of the number four in Native American culture.

Cornelius Van Wright's & Ying-Hwa Hu's watercolor illustrations help weave the contemporary and the traditional together into livable scenes. They have integrated native and modern furniture clothing, and decoration. The pictures are bright and expressive, showing warm skin tones, dark hair, and colorful costumes.

Review Excerpts
Pulishers Weekly: "Smith's language consciously evokes legend...Van Wright and Hu's (Jewels) lifelike renderings capture the genuine affection between Jenna and these caring older women."

School Library Journal: "Watercolor paintings in bright, warm tones fill each page."

 Connections
Learn about powwow and jingle dancing at this website:
http://www.gatheringofnations.com/educational/index.htm
Smith, Cynthia Leitich. 2001. RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 10-0688173977