Return of the Indian - Lynne Reid Banks

...their own times;
* Return of the Indian (1985) ~ The story "The Plastic Indian" based on the events which happened a year ago has won Omri a prize, and he wants to tell his Iroquois friend all about it; Little Bull comes back wounded, and events move on from here;
* The Secret of the Indian (1989) ~ This is possibly the weakest of the stories, as it ties up loose strings from the previous book(s). It doesn't stand up very ...
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== THE RETURN OF THE INDIAN ==

Omri writes the story of ''' The Plastic Indian ''' and enters it into a writing competition at his school. He thinks no more about it and gets caught up in the struggles of real life, which include Patrick's parents getting divorced and Patrick moving away with his mother and brother. It is the beginning of his last year before High School, and his family has also moved, to a new, bigger, ... more

The Second of Five Books in "The Indian in the Cupboard Trilogy"

FIVE BOOKS? . . . IN A TRILOGY? . . . Doesn't "Tri-" mean "Three"?

There seem to be quite a few books I've been reading lately which started out fairly simply as a single volume, developed into a "trilogy" and then became much more . . . well . . . I've just finished reading "Mostly Harmless" which was (according to the front cover) "the fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy" . . . and Orson Scott Card's fourth "Shadow" book was a continuation of the many faceted Ender's Game "trilogy" of five (or six?) books. But I digress.

"The Indian in the Cupboard" Series

This is a series of stories suitable for "Middle School" and "Junior High School" children ~ aged approximately 8 to 14 yrs old ~ written by Lynne Reid Banks.

• The Indian in the Cupboard (1980) ~ in which a plastic Indian is locked in a cupboard by a (10yr old?) Omri, and becomes a real miniature man from the Iroquois Nation (Little Bull); other figures follow; when re-locked in the cupboard, they go back to their own times;
• Return of the Indian (1985) ~ The story "The Plastic Indian" based on the events which happened a year ago has won Omri a prize, and he wants to tell his Iroquois friend all about it; Little Bull comes back wounded, and events move on from here;
• The Secret of the Indian (1989) ~ This is possibly the weakest of the stories, as it ties up loose strings from the previous book(s). It doesn't stand up very well as a "stand-alone" story, despite an attempt to re-cap the initial story;
• The Mystery of the Cupboard (1992) ~ Omri discovers why his cupboard and the key (made by his great-great-aunt Jessica) together have the power to turn plastic figures into real life persons from their times;
• The Key to the Indian (1998) ~ When his father understands the secret of the key, a final series of adventures ensues.

How it ALL BEGAN

THE INDIAN IN THE CUPBOARD begins the story. Omri receives a plastic red Indian for his birthday from his best mate Patrick. As he has plenty of plastic figures already, and he feels he's outgrowing toy figures, he stuffs it into his pocket. His brother Gillon gave him a medicine cupboard, which he had found in the back alley, as he had had no pocket money for weeks (due to an unfortunate incident with his dad's bicycle!). His mother lets Omri root in her key collection for a key and he finds an ancient key that fits. Finding the toy Indian in his pocket, he puts it in the cupboard and locks it in, thus bringing it to life, a miniature live member of the Onondaga Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy from the 1750s. But real people need real food and shelter! Little Bull makes demands on Omri and teaches him about life. At first, Omri thinks of this as a game, but when Little Bull is injured, it becomes more serious. A British "Tommy Atkins" (generic WW I soldier) is brought to life to treat Little Bull, and then sent back to his own time, fighting in the trenches.
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Omri cannot keep this a secret from his friend, and tells Patrick. Patrick brings a plastic cowboy to life, thinking he can play Cowboys and Indians, and thus Boone, a cowboy from the 1800s arrives in the present. However, it becomes obvious that these people really don't belong in the "present" and they are sent back, individually, to their own times.

THE RETURN OF THE INDIAN

Omri writes the story of The Plastic Indian and enters it into a writing competition at his school. He thinks no more about it and gets caught up in the struggles of real life, which include Patrick's parents getting divorced and Patrick moving away with his mother and brother. It is the beginning of his last year before High School, and his family has also moved, to a new, bigger, house; Unfortunately for Omri, he now has to take a train to get to his school, and Hove(l) Road (some clown has written an l on the Road sign) is not really in a nice part of town. The local school doesn't require a uniform, so he stands out among the children as he walks the half mile from the station home, and is attacked and jeered at by bullies as he walks along his road to the house.
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Just that day, he has seen Patrick waiting for his cousins outside the school gates, and thought of Little Bull and Boone, and that time. And when he gets home, his mother has NEWS for him! His STORY has won FIRST PLACE! His mother and brothers read his story and are impressed!
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He decides to bring Little Bull back to share the news with him . . . after all, it was a TRUE story . . . he had not just made it up . . . and he thinks that Little Bull has as much need to know about the result as he does! He finds the little plastic group of pony, Indian brave and girl and puts them into the cupboard. But when he does, when he unlocks the key and opens the door, he finds disaster! Little Bull is badly injured from French musket wounds. . .
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A new adventure has begun, which will bring him into danger far greater than the skinheads of Hove(l) Road, and will help him come to terms with a greater responsibility than he has experienced before. He also discovers how to deal with his fears . . . and his neighbours . . .

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ANALYSIS

The basic premise of these stories is that every person who has ever lived, or will live, has got a corresponding plastic figure representing him or her. Putting that person into the magic cupboard and turning the key brings to life a miniature version of that person in your time. Returning the person to the cupboard, and locking them back in, returns them to their time, leaving a plastic figure behind once more. Only plastic items are changed in the cupboard. The key is also special.
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Omri learns responsibility through his interaction with miniature humans from other time periods; he realises that there are consequences from interfering with real people (however small) and their lives and feelings.
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• Each individual story in the series was originally meant to stand on its own. There is at some point a recapping of previous events, so that someone coming to the book without having read earlier books will not be confused;
• the entire plot is not given away, so it actually inspires you to go back and read earlier stories in the series;
• The characterisation of even the "historical" persons brought to life is so good that you are made to care about what happens next, and what will they do when back in their OWN time;
• Omri's brothers and Patrick's cousins react like normal siblings and relations and you can easily identify with all of them, understanding why they feud the way they do.
• These books have made "reluctant readers" eager to read more.
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There has been some controversy surrounding the depiction of Native Americans in this series, which I have looked into, but some of the allegations of which I read seem to be based on the original misconceptions of Omri when he meets Little Bull, rather than on the character of Little Bull himself as depicted by Ms Banks.

There is also a film based on the original book. As I have not seen the film, I do not know how much of the misunderstandings are based on the "re-interpretation" of the book by film editors and scriptwriters and how much are based on an inaccurate reading of the book(s) and hearsay on the part of those who have complained. It never occurred to me to question her depiction before researching this review, and I have read these books before. I do think it is a shame that Political Correctness be put before the exciting concepts of toys coming to life in what is, essentially a FANTASY tale.
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Certainly, Ms Banks made quite a point of trying to counteract the ideas that "all Indians were the same" in the original book, by pointing out several times the differences in lifestyles between the Iroquois Nation and their enemies the Algonquin in the conversations with Little Bull. Little Bull builds himself a longhouse in which to live, and insists on having a wife whose decorations show that she is from his tribe. To do this, he comes with Omri to the Toy store and chooses the plastic figure himself who becomes Twin Stars.
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The Vocabulary in these books is at times challenging, and does not try to over-simplify the concepts involved, but stretches the imagination. Lynne Reid Banks believes that "for society's sake we must raise children with the ability to imagine the consequences of their actions, and to empathise with the situations of others. A healthy imagination is thus a powerful tool for the young as they approach the adult world." From an interview with Lynn Reid Banks by Judith Ridge, published in SCAN in October 1994 Volume 13 Nº 4, Judith Ridge says that "Ms Reid Banks's writing is notable for her compassionate portrayal of families, and her ability to bring characters, both real and fantastic to life."
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Similarly, in that same interview, the Author says about her books being used as "teaching texts" :

" This is absolutely wonderful. . . . I want teachers to read to children, even at quite an advanced age. I want them to do rôle play, I want them to interpret books, not just "And what did Omri do then, children?" Making dioramas and all these lovely things you can do to fix the book firmly in your head. But I also want the teachers to act it, and interpret it, and make it alive for the children, and I often feel without any smarm, that teachers are due for a great deal of thanks from authors, because if they read it badly, it’d be better if they didn’t read it. But so often kids write to me and say "Miss So-and-so did read it nicely and she put on all the accents, and she cried at the end.." The teachers who read it well are our interpreter. Wonderful."

I was reminded of this book when I was looking through some cassette tapes given to me for use with visually impaired persons, and the unabridged version of this book was one of them.

I listened to the book, read by the author, and remembered how much I had enjoyed reading this when my children were young; wishing I had a copy! I used an Amazon voucher (earned by answering surveys) to purchase "The Indian in the Cupboard Trilogy" (the initial three books in the series) for £6.49 (Super Saver Delivery free!) as the book on its own would have been £4.99 (plus £2.75 p&p). Delivery was quick, despite being free, and soon I was refreshing my memory of the original tale and reading the THIRD story, about what happened when his parents came home, The Secret of the Indian which was a book I had not previously read (although I HAVE read The Mystery of the Cupboard ). Reading these books has been inspiring and encouraging.
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One of the things I like about these tales is the way the parents in the stories expect their children to react responsibly, and therefore trust them to do as they ought, giving them quite a lot of leeway. In addition, these children did not always behave in a goody-goody way, but they suffered the consequences of their actions. There is a moral framework to the tales which to me felt to be similar to the way in which I was brought up: in a family of eight children, where each member had their own responsibilities; where privileges were earned, not considered to be rights to be demanded; where we were expected to obey, and explanations were given if needed. We had a balance in our homelife between privacy and accountability which sometimes seems to be lacking with modern children.
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I would read these tales again and have even appreciated some extra material found on www.scholastic.com (A Discussion Guide on The Indian in the Cupboard; a Vocabulary list with 69 possibly unfamiliar words to challenge the reader) and a discussion on www.proteacher.net which helped clarify some of the Native North American preconceptions issues.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AVAILABLE

The link for the discussion guide is:
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/collateral.jsp?id=1341_type=Book_typeId=886 . One thing to note is that these resources are designed for Schools in the USA and the American version of the book uses slightly different names for the Indians.
The discussion of the book and its use in schools is: http://www.proteacher.net/discussions/showthread.php?t=1102 .

I really think this book introduces younger readers to ways of life with which they might be unfamiliar, and helps them to think of consequences.

So many times we think " ... if only .. " we had such and such we would be able to do this better . . . without really realising what we would get if we actually HAD what we wanted. Little Bull discovers this in Return of the Indian and Omri also begins to realise that just giving someone what they ask for isn't always the wisest course of action, even if you really, really want to help them in their difficulties!
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I recommend this series to people of all ages who want to challenge their imaginations and preconceptions.

It's FUN!

I recommend this book in particular to anyone who has read the first book in the series and enjoyed it, or wants to develop an interest in history.

It's CHALLENGING and INVENTIVE! You particularly don't want to miss an incredible confrontation (in Omri's time) between the miniature people and the skinheads. I wish that I could have such defenders!

Product details:

Return of the Indian

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Collins; New edition edition (2 Jun 2003)
• ISBN-10: 0007148992
• ISBN-13: 978-0007148998
• RRP £ 4.99

The Indian in the Cupboard Trilogy (first three books)

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books; New edition edition (1 Mar 1994)
• ISBN-10: 0006749526
• ISBN-13: 978-0006749523
• RRP £ 9.99

Thanks for reading.

© jesi ~~ June 2009 ~~ ♥ ~ ♥
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