Malian’s Song - Bruchac, Marge. Illustrated by William Maughan. University Press of New England, 2005. Vermont Folklife Center Children’s Book Series, 2006. Unp. $16.95, hardcover. ISBN-10: 0-916718-26-3. 974.004’9734 Rogers, Robert, 1731-1795—Juvenile literature. Abenaki Indians—History—Juvenile literature. Abenaki Indians—Wars—Juvenile literature. Abenaki Indians—Crimes against—Juvenile literature.

How true is history? That is an underlying theme in this story of British Major Robert Rogers’ raid on the St. Francis Abenaki community near Montreal on October 4, 1759.

Until Jeanne Brink, a modern-day Abenaki living in Vermont, told the version of the story recorded here to the Vermont Folklife Center in 2000, it was almost unknown. Her story, passed down orally among the native people since the time of the raid, differs from the journal records of Kenneth Roberts, whose classic novel Northwest Passage tells the English version.

According to Brink, the Abenaki were brutally attacked and their village destroyed. In this book, the young girl Malian tells the story of how raiders burned everything, including their church, and thirty people died. Malian never saw her father again. But she tells her children and her children’s children, “As long as we have the stories, all our relatives will still be with us.”

The illustrations are outstanding and tell the story on their own. The blazing fire has a double-page spread, accentuated by a formation of Abenaki women, their backs turned away from the reader, just observing. Typical of all the illustrations is the togetherness—the loving relationship among the women and children who give each other comfort.

Malian’s Song ends with a three-page compilation of facts about the raid. A small bibliography is included. This would be a good addition to the children’s section of a library. We, too, can tell stories, discuss the importance of the illustrations and how historical “facts” can sometimes err and prejudices lead to the misinterpretation of events.

Barbara J. Graham