Diversity Within Diversity
A Review by Dr. Jerry Flack
Kevin Noble Maillard uses bold verses to highlight important elements in his tribute to the delicacy that is the most celebrated food entree in the collective Native American diet. Fry bread is food, time, art, history, place, and nation. It is equally noteworthy for its shapes, sounds, colors, and flavors. “Fry Bread Is Flavor” is one example.
See beans or soup
Smell tacos, cheese, and vegetables
Delight in honey and jam
Rise to discover what brings us together.
Each simple yet elegant poem is matched with extensive and scholarly end matter that make this miracle of a book useful for all ages of readers. “Fry Bread Is History,” for example, describes in substantial detail the many tragedies visited upon the Indigenous peoples who were the original inhabitants of what is today the United States of America. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 is but one of many thefts and forced removals of Native American tribes and nations. During these forced resettlements, many Indigenous people died. As popular as fry bread is today among American Indians it is not an indigenous food. Its roots are post-Colonial. Historically, fry bread is considered to be the invention of the people of the Navajo Nation. More than 150 years ago, the Navajo (or Dine) were forced off their vast lands in the American Southwest. They were denied the familiar meats, vegetables, and fruits of their homelands. In order to avoid starvation, the Dine combined simple ingredients of flour, salt, water, and yeast to create fry bread.
Verbally and visually, Maillard and Juana Martinez-Neal reveal the basic diversity of fry bread as a constant among Native Americans. However, Fry Bread is also about diversity within diversity. Recipes for fry bread have widely spread throughout the 537 federally recognized Native American tribes and nations. The author notes that when he moved from his roots in Oklahoma to Michigan, the Midwestern Chippewas who lived there let him know that his original tribal recipe of the Mekusukey band of the Oklahoma Seminole Nation (taught to him by his aunt) was not like their true recipe for American Indian fry bread. The magnificent double-page spreads picture the racial and ethnic diversity of today’s children who live in tribal lands that celebrate with the creation of fry bread.
The children as portrayed in resplendent and gloriously colorful illustrations represent the diversity found among vast populations of Native Americans. The children represent various skin colors, facial features, hair textures and styles, and varied Native clothing. Across hundreds of years of displacement and removal, Native Americans became intertwined with people of European, African, and Asian descent. Fry Bread is definitely all about family. At least one adult making fry bread appears in every artistic scene to emphasize that the act of making fry bread is a crucial element of passing recipes, directions, and traditions to each new generation.
Still another example of diversity within diversity is the inclusion of the author’s own recipe and thorough instructions for making “Kevin’s Fry Bread.” Whereas Native American women are mostly associated with making fry bread for their families, tribes, and nations, Kevin, a male chef, is the chief maker of fry bread in his own Native family. He admits that his first attempts were disastrous failures, but that within a short time he took on the role of his family’s “fry bread lady.” Now, his family will only eat his fry bread. A sense of community is underscored throughout the pages of Fry Bread. The poem “Fry Bread Is Time” signals that a feast of fry bread is essential to holidays, Powwows, festivals, and other vital moments of shared family and friend gatherings.
The design of Fry Bread is exceptional. Art, verse, and history are found everywhere in this highly honored information book. The cover art features a community elder sharing a sweet piece of fry bread with a young child. The extraordinary front and back-end pages contain the names of every one of the 537 federally recognized Native American tribes and nations in the United States today. (Canada recognizes 600 such First People tribes.) Each essential verse is presented with vibrant color illustrations of children of extraordinary diversity plus older generations who are both creating fry bread for the present and passing on recipes and traditions to Native children. Fry Bread underscores the great importance of family. The verses can serve as read aloud poems for younger readers. The voluminous back matter content provides extensive information about the history of fry bread and the people who carry on its cultural and dietary traditions. The great cultural explanations and sources are surely one of the reasons that Fry Bread won the American Library Association’s highest award for an information book, The Robert F. Sibert Medal. Secondary students and gifted readers of many ages can use the extensive and authentic end matter in home and class projects. A bibliography and reference notes serve as guides to readers to extend the wonderful knowledge base the book offers readers.
Home & School Activities
Making Kevin’s Fry Bread. Few children’s books invite readers to unite story with cooking, a delicious combination. With adult supervision, readers can work with parents and teachers using “Kevin’s Fry Bread” recipe. It is a recipe handed down through generations of his family. Learning to closely follow directions is just one of the benefits of this culinary activity. The illustrations in Fry Bread reveal that even when an adult does the hard work of creating dough and frying the delicious bread that young children are astute observers. Further, while the recipe cooks, adults share indigenous art objects that reveal iconic Native American culture such as basket weaving and the making of dolls. It is yet one more way to reveal the intergenerational nature of making fry bread.
More Cultural Recipes. Fry bread is flat and most often created for celebrations, festivals, and other special occasions. It is not intended to be a daily food staple in most Indian Country tribes. There is a wide diversity of such foods that are central to lives of other diverse populations. Mexican Americans enjoy sopaipillas just as South Asians enjoy naan bread and people of Middle Eastern heritage love pita bread. It is a Jewish tradition to eat challah (braided egg bread) every Friday night to begin the Sabbath. Families can find recipes of special foods that are singular to their collective heritage. Either using ethnic cookbooks, family recipes, or by engaging in online recipe research, readers can make a special food that signals their own ethnic or racial heritage. Gifted readers can research the history and culture associated with their chosen culinary delicacy and create a picture book about it that is similar in format and design to Fry Bread.
Ethnic Cookbooks. Another culinary-literacy fusion occurs when readers create original school, class, and family cook books. When this author created the first gifted and talented program in the Kalamazoo, Michigan Public School, one of the earliest student projects was the creation of an original ethnic cookbook that complemented a school-wide ethnic potluck supper. Each student in the brand-new gifted program contributed at least one or more recipes for the cookbook. Students also contributed the original cover design and recipe illustrations. Every school family received a copy of the Oakwood Junior High School Ethnic Cookbook. Now, 48 years later, this author still receives comments and thank you notes for the collection of ethnic recipes.
Literary Criticism. A number of classic Caldecott medal and honor books have been dedicated to Native American culture and history. Two recent examples are We Are Water Protectors (Roaring Brook Press, 2020) and Berry Song (Little, Brown and Company, 2022). Both titles were illustrated by Michaela Goade, a member of the Tlingit Nation in Alaska. Readers can search online children’s book titles about diversity that are primarily devoted to Native American culture. Picture books are critiqued by the narrative, illustrations, and often added back matter that is highly informative. Choose at least one other book about American Indian tribal life and compare and contrast it with Fry Bread. What are the virtues of each book? Which picture book has the most handsome illustrations? Is the narration in prose or poetry? Which story is the most engaging? Which book has the greatest amount of back matter information, scholarly extensions, references, and research prompts? Once the criticism has been carefully written and edited, students can draw or paint a cover for their combined book reviews.
Additional Native American Research. As noted above, the front and back end pages of Fry Bread lists the 537 federally recognized Native American tribes and nations. Two examples are the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi and the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe. Encourage readers to use online resources to further explore Native American history, geography, art, and culture. Choose one or more of the 537 identified groupings. Check a local library for all manner of media (e.g., books, DVDs) that can be used to create a picture book about life in the chosen tribe or nation. Supplement library research with online searches for even more details plus copyright free photography and artwork. Compile all the research into a book to share with siblings and classmates. For inspiration, see YouTube interviews with Kevin Maillard about why and how he wrote Fry Bread.
Maillard, Kevin Noble. Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story. Illus. by Juana Martinez-Neal. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2019. American Library Association Robert F. Sibert Medal (gold), 2020.
