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Shell Shaker |
Author: LeAnne Howe
Published: 2001-09-01 |
List price: $11.95
Our price: $10.16
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As of: January 07th, 2009 09:06:17 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Excellent and fun read with enjoyable characters
I disagree with the negative comments about this book. It is very readable with fun and interesting characters. I plan to teach it to undergrads and have no doubt they are smart enough to read it easily. Overall, Howe does a wonderful job of showing a Choctaw family in the late 20th century, with their families and living in a not overly-idealized Southern Oklahoma town.
 Using Howe's novel in lower level undergraduate courses
After analyzing Howe's Shell Shaker, I believe that this novel is teachable in either a composition or survey level course. It contains fabulous material for textual analysis and beyond-the-text analysis. The readability of the novel is difficult, but not impossible. The novel does, however, carry great risks. I would expect this novel to disturb many students in content and form. Including Shell Shaker on a syllabus would also limit other material options for a survey or composition course from the perspective of the time (Shell Shaker isn't a quick or easy read) and from the perspective of the non-major students who wouldn't likely want to tackle another text of this difficulty. From my experience, I would assert that this text is more fun to study than to read, so the payoffs could be equally as high as the risks. Students who are able to engage with the text either in formal textual analysis, sociohistorical analysis, or cultural analysis can reap the benefits of learning about discussing literature in terms of a single work or how it is validated or marginalized in relationship to other works in the course and about how this work comments on and validates or marginalizes our own views of colonialism and American culture at large. Shell Shaker is, finally, a novel that is teachable but one that I would place on a syllabus with caution and only after seriously weighing its value against the other course selections because, in spite of the high potential for reward, most of the risks are on the students' side of the equation.
Amazing!
LeAnne Howe is one of the most talented writers I have read to date. Her characters are amazing, her voice is distinct and powerful, her stories are fantastic. I've been a fan of LeAnne for years and her work just keeps getting better and better!
 A tie between two generations
LeAnne Howe's "Shell Shaker" is a novel that ties the present and the past generations together to show the importance of a community. Two political leaders, one from the 18th century and the other from the 20th century originally intend to do well for their communities but are later overtaken by greed. Both political leaders, Redford McAlester and Red Shoes, divide their communities by making war. With the help of the spirits the members of the communities must individually make sacrifices for the benefit of the whole community in order to obtain a balance between the tribes. The emotions of the characters in this novel range from romance to violence and murder. I enjoyed this novel because the characters have such an extensive list of emotions which caused me to identify with them as well as sympathize for them, therefore making each character seem real.
shell shaker
This book was really interesting. Being from France, it was really my first interaction with a Native writter or even with the Native' world. I had to read this amazing book for my Native American Class, this book really open my eyes on the Native World and the skills of Howe is simply amazing and she is simply a wonderful narrator. I would recommend anyone to read this amazing book.Sincerly, Nicolas from Nice, France
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