Hellobee

Lion is such a huge fan of reading that we frequently go to the library and check out forty or more books at a time. While he’s always had a pretty good attention span for books, since he turned about eighteen months his attention span for longer books has gotten much better. Mr. Dolphin and I appreciate that we can pick up longer books now and read him some of our childhood favorites, as well as discovering new ones that we love to read.

One of the libraries near us has a section of picture books devoted to mythology and folktales. As someone who studied religious studies in undergrad, I love myths, particularly ones that I’m unfamiliar with. It’s always fun to see what myths have parallels with ones that I have heard before and interesting to see how different cultures have a lot of similarities. We have read dozens of fun myths and folktales from Tibet, Mexico, China, the Caribbean and more.

One author that we stumbled across has these really great books on tales from around the world (though mostly in the U.S.), focusing largely on “trickster” tales. Gerald McDermott books are generally brightly colored, differently illustrated (meaning that there is not a common illustrator throughout his books) and hold both parental interest and toddler attention. McDermott was the first Fellow of the Joseph Campbell Foundation and his devotion to mythology is evident. We have loved every single one of these books. Although our two-year-old adores them, I think that older kids in elementary school would enjoy them as well. The teaching opportunities are different, of course, and I look forward to revisiting them when Lion and Panda get older.

Anansi the Spider: A Tale from Ashanti: This book received a Caldecott honor and is a sweet book about Anansi, a spider who sets off on a journey and is saved by his sons. Anansi has only one reward, though, and must figure out which son deserves it.

Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest: This one is really a story about how the world gained light, one part of the many creation myths in existence. I love that there are so many different myths revolving around the issue of light and hope that when Lion grows older, we can read several of these myths from different parts of the worlds and see where there are overlaps or differences.

Coyote: A Trickster Tale from the American Southwest: Coyote wants to fly and gets some help from the birds. When he begins to boast, though, he finds himself in trouble.

Arrow to the Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale: Here’s another story with elements of creationism, but it also has elements similar to the story of Christ. It tells about how the son of the Lord of Sun comes to earth.

Jabuti the Tortoise: A Trickster Tale from the Amazon: This is probably Lion’s favorite of McDermott’s books and the only one that we actually own, a gift from my aunt. Jabuti plays beautiful music, but Vulture is extremely jealous.

Zomo the Rabbit: A Trickster Tale from West Africa: This one is Mr. Dolphin’s favorite because the ending is very clever. Here, a rabbit asks Sky God for wisdom and is asked to complete three tasks. After completing these tasks, the Sky God reveals some wisdom for the rabbit.

Monkey: A Trickster Tale from India: This was the first book we picked up by McDermott and Lion fell in love immediately. We lucked out, in a way, because Lion is very interested in animals and the two characters, a monkey and a crocodile, are ones he is particularly fond of. It also features mangos, one of his favorite foods. Monkey must figure out how to get from one island to another to collect his mangos while avoiding getting snapped up by the hungry crocodile.

Pig-Boy: A Trickster Tale from Hawaii: This book is about a little pig who finds ways to slip away and escape trouble before ultimately returning to his grandmother.  A retelling of the Kamapua’a tale.

Papagayo: The Mischief Maker: Papagayo is the only one on this list that we haven’t read yet. It doesn’t seem to be available at our local library and is apparently out of print. According to Amazon’s summary, it’s about a parrot who must save the moon from being eaten by a ferocious moon-dog.

I’ll be sharing some our other favorite picture books retelling myths and folktales, but we are always looking for more suggestions in this genre. Do you have any great picture books focusing on myths from around the world?