Joseph Bruchac

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A Book for Pondering and Perspective-Taking: Border Patrol by Joseph Bruchac

By Holly Johnson, Emeritus Professor, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

A hand coming out of the ground reaches for tree roots.Almost every book allows for a perspective that may be different from the reader’s, and many books give readers something to ponder, but books that afford both pondering and perspective-taking are a bit more rare. Joseph Bruchac’s new book, Border Patrol (2025), is one such book. It brings to life both current issues and historical context, which had me contemplating just how much of U.S. history might need rethinking.

Lily, a middle grade Mohawk girl, has a lot to say in respect to border issues both current and historical. The book shares Lily’s thinking through a series of verses that can be read individually—with openings for much discussion—or in a series of verses that give readers numerous ways to contemplate another perspective while also pondering their own actions if they found themselves in similar situations or confronted with someone like Lily. Continue reading →

Authors' Corner

Authors’ Corner: Joseph Bruchac

By Megan McCaffrey, Governor’s State University in Chicago, Chicago, IL

Bruchac sitting on a hide, holding a drum and smiling.

Photo by Eric Jenks

Author Joseph (Joe) Bruchac, a storyteller most of his life, sat in conversation with children’s literature students at the University of Arizona on January 31, 2022, a session which I attended. Raised by his maternal grandparents who lived down the road from his parents, little “Sonny,” as he was called, did not know much about his Native American roots. Once Bruchac began to explore his Native American heritage in college, he became drawn to his Abenki roots. He says, “I knew as a child, for example, that we had native heritage, but I did not know much about it.” Bruchac was born in October 1942 in upstate New York, and he still lives in Saratoga Springs above what was his grandparent’s gas station and general store where he was raised. Today, Bruchac operates a bookstore in the former general store. Continue reading →