Pistes d'exploration

Brainstorm what you know about Christopher Columbus. Read the author’s note. Find San Salvador on a map. Research Columbus’s travels and discoveries.

After the story is read aloud, compare and contrast the different perspectives: from the “historical” side and from the boy’s side. Note your ideas in a graphic organizer.

Look for examples of foreshadowing in the text and illustrations.

The narrator concludes: “May it be a warning to all the children and all the people in every land.” Discuss the meaning and significance of this sentence.

Make connections between the Spanish colonization of San Salvador and other historical colonization. Find examples from Canadian/Québec history. Discuss the ethics of colonization.

Look at and discuss the cover and back page. What do the illustrations represent? What do you think this story is about?

Listen to the author’s note read aloud. Brainstorm what you know about Christopher Columbus. Find San Salvador on a map. Research about Columbus’s travels and discoveries.

After the story is read aloud, compare and contrast the differing perspectives of the “historical” side and the boy’s side. Note your ideas in a graphic organizer.

Look for figurative language in the text (similes, metaphors). Discuss their meanings and add them to an ongoing list of figurative language.

Discuss how there are often two sides to a story, giving examples from your own life. Find examples from Canadian/Québec history.

When I Was Eight, Shi-shi-etko, Secret of the Dance

Mots-clés

Picture book , Christopher Columbus , exploration , first-person narration , history , illustrations (acrylic) , oppression , slavery

Commentaire descriptif

This fictional retelling of the historic moment when Christopher Columbus landed in San Salvador gives readers a sense of the encounter from the perspective of an invaded native tribe. Told from the point of view of a child from the now vanished Taino people, a little boy attempts to convince the Chief of danger through his warning dreams. Heedless of his pleading, the Taino welcome the strangers, with disastrous consequences. The story shows how these aboriginal peoples lost their land, language and culture to European explorers. First-person language is full of wonder and poetic detail, bringing the narrator and his tribe to life: “But in my dream that night, three great-winged birds with voices like thunder rode wild waves in our bay.” There are moments of humour, when gum rubber balls and parrots are exchanged, and also terror, when people are kidnapped, separated and taken away in canoes to other islands. Painted acrylic illustrations have a soft haze, implying a sense of memory and the filter of time. Close-ups of the foreign invader’s faces have a touch of horror: “It was the serpent’s smile – no lips and all teeth.” Pictures contain interesting historic detail, although notes at the back reveal that very little is actually known about the Taino culture.