The Birchbark House

"The Birchbark House" As eight-year-old Omakayas (a name that translates as "Little Frog", given to her because she always seems to be jumping about) explores a quiet swamp, she is called by her grandmother (Nokomis), who wants her help peeling the birchbark that will be used in constructing a summer house for their family. Happy to help, Omakayas runs to join her. She listens as Nokomis prays for forgiveness from the spirit of the tree, and watches as she finds exactly the right spot to start, makes a couple of initial cuts, and peels the bark in long sheets. As Omakayas and Nokomis sew the sheets of birchbark together into a house, narration describes the rest of Omakayas' family - loving Mama, beautiful older sister Angeline, selfish younger brother Pinch, and happy baby Neewo. The father of the children, Deydey, is a trapper, usually away catching animals for fur.

Some time later, Omakayas is awakened by the noise of an approaching thunderstorm and struggles to not be frightened of the spirits she believes such storms bring. The next morning, after the storm has passed, the air is fresh and clean. Omakayas realizes her mother will probably want her help doing the stinky, messy job of preserving a moose hide. She makes an effort to sneak away, but her attempt to crawl under the walls of the house fails, and she gets stuck. Both Mama and Angeline laugh at her, and Omakayas feels "all of last night's thunder in her heart". After breakfast, however, Mama realizes that she needs her scissors, and Omakayas is sent by her mother to fetch the scissors from Old Tallow, happy to get out of working on the moose hide after all.

"Old Tallow" Sharp-tongued, solitary Old Tallow seems to respect Omakayas and her family. Omakayas makes her way carefully past Old Tallow's angry guard dogs (including a particularly vicious yellow dog) and finds Tallow, whom she respectfully calls Auntie, sitting on her steps with the scissors, almost as though she knew Omakayas was coming. After a brief, almost friendly, conversation, Old Tallow gives Omakayas both the scissors and a piece of maple sugar candy, and Omakayas leaves. On her way home, Omakayas decides to keep the candy for herself - that way, arguments over which of the children got most of the candy could be avoided. She also reflects on her complicated feelings for Angeline - how angry she is that Angeline laughed at her, how much she longs for her respect and love, and how much she (Omakayas) enjoys it when they play together. She is suddenly interrupted by the unexpected arrival of a pair of bear cubs, who are at first as frightened of her as she is of them. When she offers them some berries, however, they become friendly, and Omakayas imagines herself taking her two new pets home. But then the mother bear shows up and pins Omakayas to the ground. Omakayas realizes her only hope of surviving is to remain absolutely still, which she does, speaking to the bear as if she was a grandmother, apologizing and explaining that she means no harm. The bear sniffs her all over, seems to realize that she poses no threat, and leads the cubs away.