The Village of Blue Stone - Hardcover

Grade 3-6-- Drawing from customs observed in modern Indian pueblos as well as from information discovered in archaeological finds, Trimble creates a fictionalized account of life in an imaginary Anasazi Indian village of a.d. 1100. The book begins with a short report of a 1892 discovery in Mesa Verde, Colorado of the ruins of an Anasazi stone village under the rim of a cliff. The main section of the book, illustrated with softly shaded black-and-white pencil drawings, deals with the lives of the 25 tribal members who might have lived in such a village. Readers observe weaving, storytelling, pottery making, harvesting, hunting, and religious ceremonies. In the afterword, a fictitious team of modern archaeologists examine the remains of the village. While the main section of the text contains interesting details of tribal life, the format of the book may confuse some young readers who might have trouble from section to section sorting out the factual from fictionalized imaginings. It's unfortunate that the opening section dealing with the initial discovery of Anasazi ruins does not explain which portions of the text are based on research, which are speculation, and which are pure fiction. --Yvonne Frey, Illinois Central College, East Peoria
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