Harriet Peck TaylorCritiques

This book is about a badger and a coyote chasing a jackrabbit and leading up in a cave. This is a great book to teach young children about ancient times and introducing them to pictographs and petroglyphs.

This is a retelling of a Wasco Indian story about how the constellations were placed in the sky. This is appropriate for the third grade unit study of folktales, the fourth grade unit on Native Americans, or the fifth grade unit on space. It would also be an interesting study of how animals are often presented in legends and folktales. It also includes beautiful illustrations which would enhance the art department's study of creating batik fabric designs.

This story tells why the seasons change with some colorful characters. It also tells why bears hibernate in the winter. This is a good teachable moment book with how cultures figured natural phenomena.½

"When Bear Stole The Chinook" is an adorable story about how a bear stole the Chinook wind which brings the spring so that's why he now hibernates. This is a great way to kids about winter, Native Americans, Bears, Hibernation, etc. It was beautiful illustrated with colors that I relate to Native Americans. It's a folklore but not in an obvious way. I didn't realize that until I looked more into it.

Based on a Wasco Indian legend, this story tells about the origin of the constellations. This would be a good addition to a nonfiction study of stars and constellations.

This was a cute telling about how the bear stole the chinook wind (the wind that brings Spring) and why he now hibernates in the winter. Would be appropriate for units on Native Americans, folklore, winter, bears, or hibernation.

In this Native American story, the coyote arranges the stars in the sky to represent all of the animals he lives with. This book tells a Native American belief of how the constellations were formed. This book would be useful for any age learning about Native American beliefs.

Summary:
This book is about a coyote who goes to a lake to get salt for his wife to cook with, but returns twice with no salt. The coyote is lazy and once he gets to the lake he falls asleep. Some butterflies decide to play a trick on him and carry him back home. The coyote does this two times and the butterflies carry him home while he is sleeping both time. The third time the coyote goes to the lake a different way. He fills his bag with salt before he falls asleep. This time the butterflies feel sorry for the tired coyote and the do carry him back in his sleep, but they also carry his bag of salt back. When he wakes up he is confused, but happy that he has the salt this time. his wife then makes a big feast for everyone.

Personal Reaction:
This book reminds me of my kids playing tricks on each other. One always thinks it's funny, but the other definitely does not agree.

Classroom Extensions:
This would be a good book to read when you have a prankster in your class. They may be able to see, that just because they are laughing, not everyone may think it is so funny.
This would also be a good book to read to a child that is being lazy. When you are being lazy, you are going to miss something, just like the coyote didn't know how he got home.

The illustrations were bold, colorful, and the animals and scenery seems very calm. This story told of Coyote's trip to the moon and his creation of animal pictures in the night sky by use of his arrows and moving the stars around. I liked that arrows were used to decorate the book throughout as a bow and arrow was a well-used weapon in some Native cultures.

This book is about Ulaq a little fox.He saw colored lights in the sky. So ask all his friends one by and they each gave him their folk tale about the Northern Lights that had been past down to them.

Summary: Coyote's wife asks him to make the journey to the salt lake to get her salt for cooking. When Coyote travels to the lake he falls asleep and the tricky butterflies carry him back to his home while he is sleeping. His wife is mad and asks him to go back and get the salt. Again the butterflies take the salt-less Coyote back to his home. Finally, on Coyote's last trip the butterflies bring him back home with lots of salt.
Review: Another great Native American story/myth. These types of books are so fun to read and include many fun animal character interactions. The art is nice and basic in this tale, it is the story line that shines in Coyote and the Laughing Butterflies.
Themes: Trickery, responsibility, and work ethic

independent reading level- 5+
awards-

The reviewer for the 'School Library Journal' said of this work, "The simple quickly moving text is luminously illustrated."

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