Dancing Cloud is a book about the life of Navajo boy and his daily life living in the southwestern plains of the United States during the 19th century. The book's message is to give insight on the daily life of native Americans of the southwest region of the United States. I did not enjoy this book, even though I love to learn about the Native American culture and the use of historical fiction is a terrific way to present the information while telling a compelling story. However, one of my problems with the book stems from the lack of a compelling story. The book chronicles the life of a boy in the tribe, and the routines he follows throughout the day. it follows the boy as he learns about the agricultural practices of his people and he learns about the different animals they encounter while tending to the fields and the spiritual symbolism that each animal represents. The whole book follows these experiences, but the story lacks a driving force. There is nothing that creates tension in the reader and makes them want to continue reading to find out what will happen next. the closest the story comes to this is when the Tribe loses their sheep in a chapter, but that is immediately resolved in the same chapter when the parents find the sheep by having the dogs track the sheep. Overall, the book just lacks a plot that compels the reader to finish reading. The second reason I don't care for this book is because for a picture book it lacks pictures. The book has pictures throughout the text, but there are not as prevalent as they are in most other picture books. The book is rather long at 80 pages but it averages a picture only every other page, and there are even four to five page stretches of the book that lack pictures. This makes the book very text heavy and can be uninviting to younger readers how would wish to read about Native Americans. ( )