Reviewed by Charlotte Richardson:
Retold by Nathan Kumar Scott, illustrated by Jagdish Chitara,
The Great Race: An Indonesian Trickster Tale
Tara Books, 2011.
Ages: 3+
With The Great Race, Tara Books continues its stellar presentation of picture books illustrated by talented indigenous Indian artists. Nathan Kumar Scott retells the simple Indonesian trickster tale, a version of the tortoise and hare story. The traditional craft of illustrator Jagdish Chitara, a Waghari textile artist from Ahmedabad, is painting ritual cloths that celebrate the Mother Goddess in brilliant white, red and black. He uses the same ancient techniques and colors to depict the many stylized animal characters in this endearing folk story, his first secular project…
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I am always on the look out for books that support the curriculum at my school. I am always on the look out for good books. So imagine my delight when I found the perfect combination of the two while browsing my local public library shelves.
First off,
Trickster is gorgeous. It has shelf appeal and format appeal coming out the wazoo. And then comes the content, which does everything else all kinds of justice.
As you can imagine, what lies within is a collection of trickster tales that are haunting, beautiful, humorous and clever all at once. There are 20 tales in all, and readers will find some common threads between tales.
Azban and the Crayfish (Bruchac, Bruchac, & Dembicki) tells the story of a clever raccoon and a lying crayfish, while
How Wildcat Caught A Turkey (Stands With Many & Sperry) tells a similar tale about a tricky rabbit and some not-so-lucky turkeys. Not all of the stories feature animals alone as some may assume. The tall tale of
Moshup's Bridge (Perry, Piers & White), and
When Coyote Decided to Get Married (Thorsgard & Arrington) are just two of the stories that feature human characters along side a cast of animals.
Stylistically, the art runs the gamut from hauntingly realistic illustrations to cartoon, yet the collection never feels disjointed. Each story is like a fresh new breath, and the art simply compliments the feeling.
End-notes feature a statement from Matt Dembicki speaking of his inspiration to get this collection together. After reading
American Indian Trickster Tales, by Ortiz and Erdoes he realized how little he knew of Native American culture and wanted to put together a collection of tales in sequential format. Dembicki wanted to make sure that the stories were all written by Native American storytellers and that he had the support of the community. The end product is this collection. There are also mini biographies of all of the storytellers and artists involved in the creation of
Trickster, and these are sure to give inspiration to budding storytellers and artists alike.
While I will be returning this collection to the library, I will also be going out to purchase it to live on my book shelf at home.
Trickster tales are to be found in the repertoire of traditional stories from all over the world and are of universal appeal. Linking in with our current focus on the US’s Hispanic Heritage Month, here are two that are sure to have young listeners enthralled:
Love and Roast Chicken (Carolrhoda Books, 2004), retold and illustrated by Barbara Knutson, is the story of how Cuy the guinea pig saves himself and tricks Tio Antonio the fox not once but the archetypal three times. Children will laugh with glee at the narrative and will love the energetic woodcut-and-watercolor illustrations. Set in the Andes, the well-written story effortlessly interjects Spanish and Quechuan phrases into the English text – for which there’s a glossary at the end, as well as some background information. You can read about Barbara’s two years in Peru here, including a great suggestion to carry a sketch pad with you when you go travelling.
Yuyi Morales’ original story Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book (Chronicle Books, 2003) is another joy. Grandma Beetle is far too busy to go away with Senor Cavalero when he comes knocking. Death in the form of the humorously depicted skeleton is thus forced to wait, while she prepares one, two, three etc things for the birthday celebrations at the end: and eventually he gives up altogether and leaves in disgust. Yuyi’s humorous artwork and snappy dialogue mean that children will not be scared by the story – they are much more likely to be too busy cheering Grandma Beetle on. Indeed, Bever’s Book Blog makes the point that many young listeners will probably not even realise the book is about death until it is pointed out to them. Open Wide, Look Inside has this podcast, recommending the book for cross-curricular and multicultural teaching. Read our interview with Yuyi, where she talks about the book - including the many children she has met “who think that Señor Calavera, the skeleton in my book Just a Minute is a cute guy, and that I should marry him.”! And don’t miss Yuyi’s delightful Personal View, My Childhood Readings: A Short List to Grow On, in our current issue.
For more Latin American trickster tales, Latina storyteller Olga Loya has recorded four stories, told in both Spanish and English, for her audiobook entitled Tío Conejo. As well as the one about Uncle Rabbit, there are a monkey, an opossum and a dog.
Do let us know if you have enjoyed these or any other trickster tales…
