MALIAN’S SONG

Folding Abenaki words and expressions into her narrative, Bruchac (scholar, storyteller and sister of the prolific Joseph) retells a child’s experience of the 1759 raid by Rogers’ Rangers on the Abenaki community of St. Francis. Weary from having helped prepare for a wedding feast, young Malian is snatched from her bed and hustled to safety by her beloved father, Simôn Obomsawin. That is the last that she ever sees of him. Hiding with others, she watches her village burn and then learns that her cousin, Maliazonis, had received a warning from a scout that the raid was impending. Malian describes how, after a hard winter, the survivors went on with their lives, and in later years she passed her memories on to the next generation. This view of the attack, which includes details never or inaccurately reported by Rogers and other contemporaries, remained in the oral tradition until 1959; with able assistance from Maughan’s carefully detailed, nonviolent scenes, it receives a strong, evocative rendition for young readers here. (bibliography, afterword) (Picture book. 7-9)