Guests by Michael Dorris

From the Publisher

Moss is frustrated. His father has invited outsiders who dress in strange clothes and speak an odd language to the village's special harvest meal - and no one but Moss seems to care how that will change the way things have always been. No matter whom he talks to, no matter what he says, people just smile and tell him, "Someday you'll understand why." Impatient for answers, Moss impulsively goes into the forest alone for the first time, hoping to find some clue during his "away time" as to who he really is and who he should become as a man. But even in the woods, nothing is quite the way he expects it to be, and before he finds his way home, Moss must see the world as a more complicated - and much more interesting - place. Learning from the subtle morals of old stories as well as by simply listening to the people around him, Moss grapples with the ultimate truth of being a grown-up: you are who you are.

Publishers Weekly

At dawn, as the ``light from the smoke hole in the roof turned from black to gray,'' Moss is playing with a string of wampum when it breaks apart, scattering abalone shell beads in many directions. The design of the beads had held a story ``from long ago,'' and even Moss's grandfather can't recall the beads' arrangement. ``Now you owe us a story, Moss,'' he tells his grandson gravely. Dorris (Morning Girl) gives this boy in search of a story a fine tale to tell. Moss, a gentle and penetrating narrator, reaches deep within himself and delves into the fertile ground of his tribe's legends. Disgruntled that his father has invited strangers from another tribe to the family's harvest feast, Moss disappears into the woods, where he unexpectedly experiences his ``away time,'' a rite of passage that involves-in Moss's case-a conversation with a special porcupine. This episode, and his unprecedented communication with Trouble, a village girl who follows him into the forest, transform Moss by the time he returns home to share the feast with his family and their guests, whom he holds responsible for ``every strange and confusing thing that had happened to me today.'' Though his narrative may at times seem a little subtle for the intended audience, Dorris has drawn a piercing portrait of a boy and the powerful traditions that shape him. Ages 8-12. (Oct.)

Children's Literature

Michael Dorris, an established adult-fiction author, has published a second successful novel for middle grade readers. Guests, a slim lyrical volume, views the first Thanksgiving from a Native American perspective. Dorris, himself Native American, grew up reading books with stereotyped Indians unlike anybody he knew or wanted to know. His fills his children's books with memories of his Native American community -- the laughter, storytelling and intimacy all missing in the books of his childhood. Moss, the hero of Guests, is only a season from making a solitary journey into the forest to seek the vision that will transform him from boy to man. At the story's opening, he cannot understand why strangers have been invited to his people's special feast day. He sulks, then flees to be alone in the forest, finding a young woman from his tribe who has also run away because her family truly makes her miserable. Moss' journey away from self-absorption into compassion takes center stage; Dorris keeps the Europeans in the wings, dwarfing the presumptuous ethnocentric vision of the first Thanksgiving. Dorris' poetic, storyteller's voice and strong characterizations dramatize this shift without sermonizing. Bravo!

Children's Literature

The day begins with an accident as Moss, a young Native American boy, carelessly handles and breaks an old wampum string, thus losing a valuable story from his people's past. Worried and reluctant to help in the preparations for a harvest feast that will be attended by strange new guests, Moss spends a short, unprepared "away time" in the forest. Here he meets a wise, mysterious porcupine who tells him to "be himself." Next he meets a young girl, Trouble, who is questioning her family role and culture. They both return with insights about their future. It is ironic that the presence at their feast of the strangers from across the sea seems relatively unimportant. This is a great portrayal of "Thanksgiving" from a Native American point of view.

School Library Journal

Gr 3-6-Moss's father extends his hospitality to a group of strangers who speak an entirely different language and who make the boy ``uncomfortable with their oddness.'' When his efforts to convince his parents that the guests should not participate in his people's harvest feast are rebuked, Moss runs away into the nearby forest. There he meets Trouble, a distant relative, and in trying to impress her, finds himself forced into his ``away time.'' Lost in the woods, he learns to look and listen, and begins to realize what it means to be a man during an encounter with a porcupine. He also finds solace in his conversations with Trouble, who eventually helps him find his way out of the forest. Though she is struggling with the strictures placed upon young women in her clan, they share universal early adolescent emotions about the lack of understanding their families afford them. Dorris's writing is elegant, full of evocative images and lush metaphors. He develops his intriguing characters in a leisurely way, and places little emphasis on plot. Young readers will need to work hard to piece together the clues that suggest the setting (someplace by the sea) and the identity of the guests (probably white settlers since they arrived after following a ``trail through the sea''). They will be able to comprehend the words, but some may miss the story's ultimate meaning.-Ellen Fader, Oregon State Library, Salem

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