Shoulders, Debbie and Michael D is for Drum: A Native American Alphabet illustrated by Irving Toddy (Diné) Sleeping Bear Press, 2006 unpaginated, color illustrations grades k-4

This title presents a mishmash of Indian cultural snippets, alphabetically and in rhyme, paired with side panels that purport to offer more information about each topic. Abysmally written, with trite error-laden rhymes and boring yet confusing “informational” text, the poor attempts at iambic pentameter highlight this cockamamie piece of dreck, typical of the quality of work of a press known for its picture books of made-up “Indian legends” that have become best sellers in Michigan and the Great Lakes Area.

The text veers between past and present tense, the selections are illogical and odd, and the rhymes are even odder:

Native Names are important words.
They’re given to newborns with care.
Honi means wolf, Woya means dove,
and Nita is Choctaw for bear.

Toddy’s artwork, for the most part, is better than the text. But most of the faces lack individuality and bodies are distorted, there’s an eagle feather fan lying on the ground, and the horses look like they’re starving.

Finally, it shouldn’t have to be said that there is no such thing as “a Native American alphabet.” Perceiving some 600 nations of people as one giant ethnic group is as ridiculous as, say:

O is for Original Sin: A Fundamentalist Christian Convert Alphabet
S is for Shetyl: An Eastern European Immigrant Alphabet
P is for Polyester: A Suburban Episcopalian Alphabet

—Beverly Slapin