A retelling of a traditional native American tale in which the Spirit that made animals and people falls in love with a Woman Spirit who becomes the moon he carries through the sky every night - (Baker & Taylor)
A retelling of a traditional Native American tale in which the Spirit that made animals and people falls in love with a Woman Spirit who becomes the moon he carries through the sky every night. - (Baker & Taylor)
Horn Book Guide Reviews
When the creator of the first men departs with his newfound spirit wife -- who becomes the moon -- they leave their baby daughter behind, and she grows up to be the first woman. Young's technique of concealing one image within another is especially appropriate in his expressive illustrations for this moving adaptation of a tale from an unspecified tribe. Copyright 1998 Horn Book Guide Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
In a lovely creation tale (drawn from Charles E. S. Wood's 1901 collection of ``Myths of the North American Indians''; not attributed to any tribe), plants come first, with no one to eat their fruits until a lonely ``spirit person'' makes animals, then ``images of himself.'' Since the men are hunters, he gives the animals defenses (most effective is the skunk's). Then the spirit person finds a woman spirit and leaves the men, who quarrel among themselves until one brave chief follows after the spirit people. He learns that they have become the sun and moon, but they've left a gift: a baby--``changeful as the moon''--who grows up to become the first woman. The myth is retold with admirable grace and simplicity. Young's full-bleed art, rendered in pastels, is vibrant with sumptuous color; the dazzling, sunstruck mist of early dawn is especially arresting, and the elemental, cloudlike forms truly bespeak a universal beginning. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright 1999 Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly Reviews
The Caldecott Medalist's eloquent, impressionistic artistry lights up the pages of this Native American creation tale. The story begins when the earth is young; a place of great beauty, it is devoid of animals or men. A spirit person arrives and creates living creatures for companions, but one day he spies a woman of his own kind and returns to the spirit world with her (she becomes the moon). As a gift, the pair leave behind a newborn girl, who eventually marries the chief, and from this union comes the human race. Young's poetic text speaks to the Native American reverence for the connection between humans and the natural world; here, the ``moon mother'' is a central figure in the eternal cycle of life. A baby cries at birth ``because he has left the moon-land and has lost his moon mother,'' and death comes for the aged when the moon mother turns her face away. The strength of Young's haunting art is its subtlety: his softly shaded pastels always suggest rather than delineate. A young woman's face, upturned to the morning light, reveals her love for her mate; the graceful line of hills on the horizon hint at a figure in final repose. A worthy addition both to a general folktale collection and to a specific round-up of creation myths. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) Copyright 1993 Cahners Business Information.
