Lucy's Dance by Deb Vanasse

Lucy's Dance Reviews

• 
  Lisa Mckay

  Lucy is a young Yup'ik girl living in an Alaskan village with her family and grandfather. Her grandfather is especially significant in the fact that he is known as the last Yup'ik tribe member to experience it's rich traditions. Many Yup'ik traditions were banned when new settlers came to their land a long time ago. They did this because the new settlers did not understand the Yup'ik way or the reasons behind such rituals. As a result, many of the practices the people once knew seemed lost forever.
  
  That is however, until Lucy convinced her town to reignite their traditions with a dance festival. This seemed appropriate because dancing along with gift giving were classic rituals of the Yup'ik people. After much preparation, the festival went off without a hitch and the town was grateful for Lucy's courage to bring back the traditions of their village.
  
  I would reccomend this book for grades 1st-2nd. Diversity is an important concept and at this age most students are becoming aware of that. This book offers the opportunity to talk about what the meaning of heritage is and reminds readers that their parents and grandparents are great resources in finding out what their own might be!
  
  An activity I would plan to go along with this book would be to have the students research what their heritage is. I would ask them to go home and talk about it with their parents and then bring something in to share. I would make learning about heritage fun by allowing students to present their item in front of the class.
  
  Vanasse, Deb. 2011. Lucy's Dance. University of Alaska Press.
• 
  Jenny

  Lucy lives in a Yup'ik village where dancing used to be an important part of their rituals. But outsiders convinced them to stop. Only Lucy's grandfather remembers the old dances. Lucy wants him to teach the village, but he says he is too old and tired. The village decides to hold a dance. Everyone makes or buys gifts for others. Lucy doesn't know what to give...but then she gets an idea. Will she be able to bring traditional dances back?
  
  Includes an author's note about Yup'ik dancing including pronunciation/definition for Yup'ik words used in the text as well as two other titles about Yup'ik dancing.
• 
  Dolly

  This is a fascinating story that depicts a child's interest in learning more about her Yup’ik culture and traditions. The tale helps to reflect a resurgence of pride in native heritage and a desire to keep the old ways alive after years of waning interest.
  
  The narrative is short enough to keep a child's attention span and teaches about the importance of celebrating our culture and heritage even as technology flattens the globe. The illustrations are colorful and complement the story nicely.
• 
  Margaret Stephenson

  I used this book in my classroom to teach about story telling through music in the Arctic. I taught this
  
  lesson 7 times to each of the kindergarteners at my school. We looked at some YouTube drum dancing videos. My kiddos had a great time and really enjoyed the story!
• 
  Laura

  great story about renewing traditions