32. Trickster

Trickster Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection by Matt Dembicki (editor) (Fulcrum Books) 2010

Genre

Folklore

Review

The anthology collects a series of Native American folktales from a variety of tribes.  Each storyteller is a Native American, and each story is coupled with a different graphic artist.  The stories tend to be origin stories and often but don't always include tricksters.  One story recounts how because of coyote, the stars are in a chaotic pattern (the animals were told by the great mystery to draw their own portraits but coyote tripped and ruined everyone's portrait).  One story details how while attempting to catch catfish, rabbit's tail was shortened to its cotton-like appearance.  Another story details how Waynaboozhoo caused geese to fly in a V pattern by tying their feet together in an attempt to catch them.  Other tales are simply about the guile of tricksters: rabbit challenges two buffaloes to tug of war and tricks them into tugging against each other.  When the buffalo try to keep rabbit from drinking water, he tricks them a second time by borrowing the shoes of a deer.  Since buffalo have such bad eyesight, they believe rabbit is a deer and let him drink.

Opinion

I enjoyed the different art styles that went along with the different storytelling styles.  In some cases the art and story are perfectly matched -- such as the "off the cuff" telling of how rabbit got his tail and the cartoon like drawing style.  The drawings add an extra element of fun to stories that are already charming and compelling.

Ideas

It would be great fun to couple the book with Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories and then have children make up their own origin tales.