Build Your Library is a complete secular curriculum used by many homeschoolers. It is a literature based curriculum which means that subjects like history are learned through literature. This is a popular style of homeschooling. Unfortunately BYL uses a lot of problematic literature to teach about Native Americans. They also leave us completely out of several levels that really should include us. Native peoples should be included throughout US and world history from past all the way to present. Leaving us out is simply inadequate.
BYL is currently editing and updating each level. Some levels will be changing significantly as far as I am aware. The first updated level is level 5. It was really quite terrible before the updates. I am including each level in this review as it currently is written on the website as of this blog date.
Level 0 – this level includes a few good Native authored books – Thirteen Moons on a Turtles Back and A Boy Called Slow. However, it also includes Little House in the Big Woods, which has a significant amount of racism. (https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2011/07/anita-silvey-recommends-little-house-in.html) Reading racist books to children only harms their education. When they’re this young (ages 4-6) discussing what is wrong about this book doesn’t stick as much as simply reading and loving the book does. This book is better reserved for high school age students who can critically examine the issues in the literature rather than using it to learn history.
The Art Around the World and Activities book has at least one problematic activity in it. I have not reviewed the whole book, but I used what is available about it online to find that it has a “make a totem pole” activity. This is a culturally inappropriate activity.
Leve 1 – This level uses Story of the World Volume 1 as its ancient history spine. This book is not secular and teaches with a Christian slant. It is also extremely Eurocentric and full of inaccuracies about ancient societies in the Americas. It largely focuses on negative aspects of these cultures and paints them in a very violent light. It is not a fair and accurate history book. Other than the very biased and inaccurate information about Natives in that book, Native peoples and societies are not included in this level.
Level 2 – This level uses volume 2 of Story of the World. Again – this book is not secular, it is Eurocentric and inaccurate. This entire level is about Europe (and somewhat the middle east) and ignores what is going on in the rest of the world during this time period. This is not a very well rounded view of history.
Level 3 – This level is where we start to see Native peoples present in the curriculum. Unfortunately it is not well done. This level uses Story of the World Volume 3. While this volume is secular, it is still Eurocentric and inaccurate. The description of the level makes it sound like colonization is a positive and great thing. It includes several books that are problematic and should not be used to learn about Native peoples. Tapenum’s Day is on Oyate.org’s list of Thanksgiving books to avoid. This book has been negatively reviewed by Native scholars several times in books. Another problematic book in this level is If You Lived with the Iroquois. These “If You Lived with…” books are largely inaccurate about the Native American nations they cover. The depictions in these books tend to be stereotypes. The Matchlock Gun is another problematic book in this level. This book contains “extremely negative representations of indigenous people,” according to Debbie Reese (American Indians in Children’s Literature blog).
Level 4 – This level is about modern times. Native Americans are not included at all. It is as though we no longer exist. Modern representation of Native peoples is absolutely needed in children’s education. Excluding us is inadequate and does not constitute a proper social studies education. There are plenty of good, modern, Native authored, children’s books that could be used here, but we just aren’t included.
Level 5 – This is the first level to be updated. The original Level 5 was atrocious and contained books like Joy Hakim’s The First Americans (https://nativecurriculumreview.wordpress.com/2020/03/31/curriculum-review-a-history-of-us-the-first-americans-by-joy-hakim/), The Double Life of Pocahontas, Indian Captive – The Story of Mary Jemison, and other such awful books. It has been well updated using many suggestions I made to the author. I made these suggestions because I was very frustrated at how we were represented in this curriculum. Unfortunately this update still has some issues. It includes Blood on the River, which I recently reviewed: https://nativecurriculumreview.blogspot.com/2020/06/book-review-blood-on-river-by-elisa.html I informed the author of the issues in this book, but she said that she wanted to keep it and thinks it offers a good perspective. I have not finished reviewing all of the books in this updated level, so there may be more issues that I find later.
Level 6 – This is American History Part 2 – I do not believe it has been updated. We also do not exist in this level. We are included in early American history, but not modern. This is a huge issue. We must be included in modern history or the curriculum is inadequate. We still exist and play an important role in modern society as well as throughout the 20th century.
Level 7 – This level has three books that are problematic. Walk Two Moons and Island of the Blue Dolphins have been reviewed by Debbie Reese. Here are links to her reviews: https://nativecurriculumreview.wordpress.com/2020/04/04/book-review-blood-on-the-river/
Water Sky uses the slur “esk*mo” throughout. Beyond that, I need to fully review this book, but I do know it is not well liked by Native peoples.
Level 8 – There is a good Native authored book in this level – Code Talker. This level is the history of science, but appears to be only the history of European science.
Level 9 – This level misses its opportunity to include us in environmental studies and outdoor skills.
Level 10 – Here we come to high school world history, however it seems very Eurocentric and doesn’t seem to include the Americas.
Level 11 – World history part 2 includes Charles C Mann’s – Before Columbus, which is good, but that is it.
Level 12 – This final level includes The Witch of Blackbird Pond which contains negative references to Native peoples. It now includes An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States which is fantastic, but could stand to use more Native authored materials. Especially at this level. https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/search?q=the+witch+of+blackbird+pond
All levels would benefit from the addition of Native American poetry and art which don’t seem to be included at all.
I appreciate the efforts of this author to update and include some good indigenous literature, they are still falling quite short by including many problematic books or not including us at all.
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