How the World Was Saved & Other Native American Tales - Hardcover

Grade 1-3?A collection of eight Native American creation myths. The text is very simplified, appearing somewhat stilted and disjointed as a result. The selections include "Micabo and the Flood" and "Morning Star's Son," both of which can be found in more poetic versions, e.g., Paul Goble's Star Boy (Bradbury, 1983), which is a morning-star legend that is superior in stylistic design and in the easily flowing text, and Michael Caduto and Joseph Bruchac's Keepers of the Earth (Fulcrum, 1988), which includes a more complete and coherent version of the little muskrat and the formation of the Earth tale. The illustrations are explained as incorporating specific designs indigenous to each story's tribe, but they look remarkably similar: somewhat garish and three-dimensional, as if clay figures had been fashioned and then copied. The influence for most of them appears to be Northwest Indian totem-pole designs. Although the introduction to the collection asserts that the tales and illustrations have been carefully researched, no documentation is offered.?Judy Constantinides, East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, LA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Harper, identified on the jacket copy as a teacher of mythology to graduate students, may have achieved his stated goal of preserving authentic versions of Native American tales, but he does little to transcend cultural barriers and reach a contemporary audience. The illustrations, while said to contain designs "true to the particular nation from which [each] came," lie flat. Harper depicts characters as static wood carvings or as featureless dolls. His compositions are cumulative, a round-up of the story's elements rather than an interpretation of a particular juncture. The tales themselves are cleanly told, though, and present a variety of legends about creation, the natural world and human foibles. But by flitting among six tribes-Kwakiutl, Nisqualli, Algonquin, Blackfoot, Pawnee and Navajo-without providing supplementary information nor otherwise distinguishing their cultures or customs, Harper sacrifices an opportunity to enrich the reader's understanding of Native American peoples. Ages 7-10.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.