Book Club Guide for The Birchbark House

Updated: Oct 29

The birchbark house

By Louise Erdrich

For Ages 8-12

Genre: Historical Fiction

Louise Erdrich draws on her family's history to tell the story of Omakayas, an Ojibwa girl living on an island in Lake Superior in 1847. Use these discussion questions, snacks, and activities during your next book club to bring this great story to life. Perfect for tween or homeschool book clubs.

Discussion Questions

In addition to the general book club questions for fiction books found here, below are my favorite questions to get groups talking about The Birchbark House.

What did you think of the illustrations? Did any stand out to you? (The illustration of Pinch on p. 186 cracked me up.)
What did you think of Old Tallow as a character?
How did you feel about the yellow dog's punishment for attacking Omakayas? (Tallow kills him with the blunt end of the axe p. 180)
The story began in the summer. Do you remember in what order the events in the book took place? What happened in summer, fall, winter, and spring?
There was a lot of food mentioned in this book. Why do you think that is and which meal would have been your favorite?
Throughout the book, Grandma and Deydey tell stories to help teach the children a lesson or entertain them. In the past, how have stories helped you to better understand something about life?
Does your family have any stories they like to tell?
What did you think of the ghost story Deydey told about sheltering from the storm on where the Sisters Eat Island?
What did you think of grandmother's story about fishing the dark side of the lake?
Omakayas meets two bear cubs in the woods. How would you feel and what would you do if two bear cubs ran into you in the forest?
Would you like to have a crow as a pet? If you could have ANY animal as a pet, what would it be?
Everyone keeps saying “Gaygo, Pinch” to get Pinch to stop pulling Andeg's feathers, but he only listens when Andeg says it, too! Did you know that crows can speak?
(Spoiler) Did you think Omakayas was the baby from Spirit Island? How well do you think she handled the news?

Snack

Blueberries and peppermint tea (because I couldn't find wintergreen tea)

The story is rich with seasonal foods, so feel free to get creative! Other food items mentioned in the book include:

Moose stew with fresh greens and berries (p. 12)
Maple sugar lumps are given to Omakayas by Tallow which she later gives to Neewo (p. 24)
Heartberries in the forest which Omakayas eats and feeds to the bear cubs (p. 26)
Corn, blueberries, and wintergreen tea made the crow meal a feast (p. 60)
Chokecherries were eaten up by Pinch who blames it on Andeg (p.84)
Wild rice was harvested in chapter six and smoked fish and venison went into the food cache (p. 100)
Beaver soup (p. 116) and later rabbit soup was used by Tallow to help revive Omakayas (p. 160)
Andeg finds a squirrel cache of acorns, seeds, and hazelnuts which the family eats during the winter when food runs low (p. 176)

ACTIVITIES

Snowball Fight (A Great Icebreaker!)

Recreate Omakayas and Pinch's snowball fight by having your own! Provide each participant with two pieces of white paper. Instruct them to write a unique question on each piece, then scrunch them into "snowballs." The questions should encourage the attendees to get to know each other. For example, “How many pets do you have?”, “What’s your favorite food?”, “What was the name of the last movie you saw?”, etc.

Split attendees into two teams and designate a side of the room for each team (or go outside if it's nice). Give them 30 seconds to toss snowballs at the opposing team’s side. Whichever team has the fewest snowballs on their side after 30 seconds wins! Then each attendee picks a snowball, opens it, and answers a question.

Name that Character

Share images of each character (scan and print them from the book) and quiz attendees on which character is which. The idea was inspired by this Pin.

Bird Talk

Did you know crows like Andeg can actually speak? Crows are great at imitating human voices. Check out this video to learn more about crows and then this video to hear a raven named Mischief speaking. If you can find a video of an actual crow speaking versus a raven, even better!

Do you remember what kind of bird Omakayas heard when she was all alone as a baby on Spirit Island? It was the white-throated sparrow. Listen to their song and watch them in action here.

Explore the Setting

The Birchbark House is set on Wisconsin's Madeline Island in Lake Superior. Show photos of the island, its beaches, and the Village of LaPointe, Wisconsin, and ask attendees if the photos match what they pictured in their mind while they read the book. Do they think the island has changed much since Omakayas' time?