Cornelius Van Wright

Young girl Jenna is a member of the Muskogee Creek Nation in Oklahoma. With admiration she looks the jingle dance from her grandmother at the powwow. The dress from grandma wolfe have a voice. The jingles on it make a sound like "tink, tink, tink". Jenna loves the tradition of jingle dance and she hopes to dance on the next powwow. But her dress would not be able to sing. Jenna needs four rows of jingles on her dress. Grandma Wolfe says, that there is not enough time to mail-order tins for rolling jingles. What should Jenna do? She makes her on a way to her great and friendly family. Maybe everthing will be fine.

"Jingle Dancer" is a wonderful book for children in the age 4 to 10. The story about Jenna and her search for jingles was written by Cynthia Leitich Smith in the year 2000. It was her first book. Cyntia tells in a simple but loving way about the tradition of the First Nation. The love of it, is very distinct in the longing of the little Jenna. She is drawn very warm and the reader like her very much. Also all the other people are loving characters. This is supported naturally by the beautiful illustrations. Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu bring with their colors the story even more to shine. The drawings are very important, especially for the little children. Because the story explain by itself. As soon as the children know about Jenna, they want to know maybe something more her traditions. At the end of the book Cynthia make a small glimpse into this world. Cynthia explain for children, what it means to dance in her way to live. "Jingle Dancer" is a beautiful children's book and get a place of honor on my bookshelf.