Seqouyah--James Rumsford

SEQUOYAH: THE CHEROKEE MAN WHO GAVE HIS PEOPLE WRITING by James Rumsford (Houghton Mifflin) The mighty trees that bear the name Sequoyah are tall and strong, but the Cherokee man, a disabled metalworker in the early 19th century, dreamed of standing with equal authority among his people. He tried to contribute to his tribe by developing a language so that their words of would not disappear with the coming of the white man. He drew hundreds of signs to create a language, but superstitious people were afraid of his symbols, and burned his cabin down with all his work inside. This only inspired Sequoyah to create a shortcut: an alphabet. Look inside this book to see the language that he created, as well as bold and beautiful woodcuts. The writing comes around in full circle like the seed to a tree to a seed again. Well-researched and compelling, this is an outstanding contribution to the genre of children's picture book biography, as well as an inspiring tribute to both the power of the word and the genius of a man. Read this along with Susan Roth's DO, RE, MI, and have children try to invent their own language to fill a void where communication is needed! (7 and up)

(planetesme.com)

In my classroom I would read this book aloud to the class and discuss how he made a language for his own people. I would compare and contrast this language to that of the English language, and many other languages that use different symbols for their words or letters.

Rumford, James. Sequoyah: the Cherokee Man Who Gave His People Writing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004. Print. ISBN: 0-618-36947-3.