Sign-In
Cart
Raising Bean: Essays on Laughing and Living
Paperback
Series: Made in Michigan Writers
Biographies GeneralNative American HistoryLetters & Essays
Publisher Price: $22.99
ISBN13: 9780814349304
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Published: Jun 7 2022
Pages: 232
Weight: 0.66
Height: 0.53 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
Essays from a Native American grandfather to help navigate life's difficult experiences.
Offered in the oral traditions of the Nez Perce, Native American writer W. S. Penn records the conversations he held with his granddaughter, lovingly referred to as Bean, as he guided her toward adulthood while confronting society's interest in possessions, fairness, and status. Drawing on his own family history and Native mythology, Penn charts a way through life where each endeavor is a journey--an opportunity to love, to learn, or to interact--rather than the means to a prize at the end.
Divided into five parts, Penn addresses topics such as the power of words, race and identity, school, and how to be. In the essay In the Nick of Names, Penn takes an amused look at the words we use for people and how their power, real or imagined, can alter our perception of an entire group. To Have and On Hold is an essay about wanting to assimilate into a group but at the risk of losing a good bit of yourself. A Harvest Moon is a humorous anecdote about a Native grandfather visiting his granddaughter's classroom and the absurdities of being a professional Indian. Not Nobody uses Be All that You Can Be Week at Bean's school to reveal the lessons and advantages of being a nobody. In From Paper to Person, Penn imagines the joy that may come to Bean when she spends time with her Paper People--three-foot-tall drawings, mounted on stiff cardboard--and as she grows into a young woman like her mom, able to say she is a person who is happy with what she has and not sorry for what she doesn't.
Comical and engaging, the essays in Raising Bean will appeal to readers of all backgrounds and interests, especially those with a curiosity in language, perception, humor, and the ways in which Native people guide their families and friends with stories.
Also in
Letters & Essays
Essays V2: Moral And Entertaining On The Various Faculties And Passions Of The Human Mind (1815)
Clarendon, Edward Hyde Earl of
Paperback
Plainwater: Essays and Poetry (by the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature)
Carson, Anne
Paperback
Sez I to Myself: The Collected Essays of Frank and Malachy McCourt
McCourt, Malachy
McCourt, Frank
Hardcover
But Have You Read the Book? Romance Edition: 40 Love Stories That Inspired Our Favorite Films
Lopez, Kristen
Hardcover
World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments
Nezhukumatathil, Aimee
Paperback
Wonder Is a Lovely Place to Be: 365 Days of Wit, Wisdom, and Irrepressible Imagination
Doyle, Brian
Hardcover
异乡故人（壹嘉-人文）
刘宗坤
Paperback
Corazón Migrante. Ensayos Sobre Lo Que No Puedo Olvidar / Migrant Heart: Essays on What I Cannot Forget
Grande, Reyna
Paperback
Little Apocalypses: Essays on Motherhood, Climate Change, and Hope at the End of the World
Teer, Kaitlyn
Paperback
Glimmerings: Letters on Faith Between a Poet and a Theologian
Wiman, Christian
Volf, Miroslav
Hardcover
Wonderbook (Revised and Expanded): The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction
VanderMeer, Jeff
Paperback
The Impossible Will Take a Little While: Perseverance and Hope in Troubled Times
Loeb, Paul Rogat
Paperback
The Sexuality of Care: On Nursing, Kink, and a Future Without Hospitals
Thekkumkattil, M. K.
Paperback
Gilmore Girls: The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge: The Official Guide to All the Books
Berlin, Erika
Hardcover
Love in the Afternoon, and Evening: Essays and Conversations on Soap Operas
Druckman, Charlotte
Sen, Mayukh
Paperback