The Shaman's Apprentice

The Shaman's Apprentice
Cherry, Lynne
Plotkin, Mark
Realistic Fiction, multicultural
Hardcourt Children's Books (2001)
k-3
The Shaman's Apprentice is about a young boy named Kamanya who lived in the Trio Native Village of Kwamala in the Amazon rain forest. When Kamanya was a boy his life was saved by Natahlah tha medicine man also known as the shaman. Shaman were highly regarded in their society because of there vast knowledge of herbs and medicines that were used to heal people. One day a man with a mysterious illness came to the village from another village and told them that white men had come to their village in search of gold and had given them all the dreadful illness. The man soon died but not before spreading the illness to others in the village. the Shaman could not figure out hoe to cure the disease. One day white missionaries came to the village and gave them pills that cured their illness which they called malaria. The village did not respect the shaman as much any more because he could not cure the malaria. One day a woman named Gabriela came to the village and told them that the pills that the missionaries gave them were derived from a plant in the amazon. this information caused the tribe to respect the Shaman again. Gabriela wrote a book about Natahlahs healing medicines and skills. The village elders chose Kamanya to be the shamans apprentice.

I found this book a little cheesy. It had too many predictable out comes for my tastes. I also did not like how the author referred to the tribe as Indians. I think she should have referred to them as Natives to the Amazon because they were not Indians from India. I think the name Indian is a derogatory term for Natives of the Americas and should not be used in literature meant to inform children. Despite this, the book does shed light on how instrumental medicines in the rain forest have been on modern medicine. This fact could help break down stereotypes that suggest that natives are privative and inferior. I am glad that she made the ethnobotanist character a woman because I agree with Cherry in that children should know that women to can be scientific role models.

In my opinion the illustrations were the best part of the whole book. The double page illustrations had bursts of color that filled the whole page. The Illustrations painted with watercolor using great detail. the illustrations saved the book because they were the only thing that really held my interest throughout the whole book. This book would be much less interesting without the illustrations.