"‘WHEEE!!’ Honey's cousin Phillip Boy was roaring with delight as they whizzed down the stairs on their homemade iron surfboard. Honey could only close her eyes when she saw Grandma Axu at the bottom of the staircase ...”
Honey Jacobson considered herself lucky to live in the last semi-traditional big house of the Kwagu'ł people: a four-storey house filled with a loving extended family of cousins, uncles, aunts and the patriarch and matriarch of the household, Grandpa Moses and Granny Axu. While new smaller houses were spreading throughout her community, Honey really knew only her relatives inside that Big House.
In the 1960s, Western culture captured the fancy of Honey's community and family, and its spell inevitably changed a Kwagu'ł family. This is Honey's story.
Reviews:
"My Life in a Kwagu'ł Big House travels in a young adult's memory. It is filled with love, joy, sadness and wisdom. Diane captures a nostalgic longing of the past, which leaves the reader with sweet sadness though yearning to know more about communal living with family and relatives."—Louise Halfe (Sky Dancer)