College of Menominee Nation

Multicultural Literature
Library
EDU315
Miranda Fink

2014

A Coyote Columbus Story

Author: Thomas King
Illustrator: William Kent Monkman
ISBN: 978-0888998309
RL: Beginning Reader
IL: Ages 6-9
Genre: Fairytales and Folklore
This is a recreation of the Christopher
Columbus story with a Native American view
point. In this story the coyote, typically a
trickster in Native American legends, creates
everything from the good to the bad. Out of
all the animals in the story, none are
interested in playing ball. Next, Coyote sings her little song, dances her little
dance and thinks real hard, creating human beings. Coyote was cheating during
the game, so of course, they left. Once again, she sings her song, dances her
dance and thinks real hard. Christopher Columbus came with his crew! They
were uninterested in playing ball and more focused on finding India. Coyote
made a mistake, and she continued to make mistakes! This book is focused
towards children; it will capture their attention and help get the point across to
them.

Drummer Boy of John John

Author: Mark Greenwood
Illustrator: Frane Lessac
ISBN: 978-1600606526
RL:
IL:
Genre:
This story is about a carnival coming to the
town of John John, on the tropical island of
Trinidad. The whole island is excited about the carnival coming except Winston.
He is not part of a band and he is not looking forward for the carnival. All he can
think about is the rotis that were promised to the best band. Eventually, Winston
forms a band. The band members make music from the junk yard and different
objects in side. This book has awesome paintings and describing words. I love
that each instrument has a different sound. This book has an authors note that
mentions this book is inspired by Winston Spree Simon, the inventor of the
steel drum.

Fox Song
Author: Joseph Bruchac
Illustrator: Paul Morin
ISBN: 978-0399223464
RL: 4.9
IL: Grades 3-5
Genre: Picture Storybook
This story is written by Joseph
Bruchac who usually writes about his
Abenaki culture. This story is about a
young French-American and
Abenaki girl who has lost her great
grandmother. The book is reminiscing the different times that she has shared
with her grandmother over the years. The memories that she has keeps her
company over time. This storybook has great pictures with beautiful words. This
would be a great storybook for a child who has lost a loved one.

Encounter
Author: Jane Yolen
Illustrator: David Shannon
ISBN: 978-0152013899
RL: 4
IL: Grades 3-5
Genre: Historical Fiction
This story is another recreation of the
Christopher Columbus story, from a
Taino boys point of view. This boy
has a dream about three, scary birds
which represent the three ships that came to their island. The boy tried to warn
the tribe that they should not welcome the strangers but they seemed not to
listen because he was, just a boy. This shows how the people lost their culture
and language because of this encounter.

How Raven Stole the Sun

Author: Maria Williams
Illustrator: Felix Vigil
ISBN: 978-0789201638
RL: N/A
IL: Grades 1-2
Genre: Legend
This is a traditional story from the Tlingit
people. This story starts out with the earth having no light, no sun, moon or stars
and the pure white raven was concerned. He knew that the Chief had the sun,
moon and stars in boxes, but he was a greedy man. The raven wanted light so
badly that he transformed himself to a pine needle and the chiefs daughter
ended up swallowing him. Months later, the chiefs daughter had a son. This
made the chief very happy. Little did they know, the baby was actually the raven.
Anytime the baby was crying, the chief would give him a box containing some
sort of light. Baby would open the box, distributing the sun, moon and stars.
Once all these were distributed on earth, the baby went back to being a raven.
This had the chief very mad and he kept him locked in his house. One day,
Raven burst through the ceiling, he was covered in soot! This is how the raven
became black and remains that way to this day. At the end of this book there is
a background on the different raven legends other tribes carry as well as
different history of the Tlingit tribe.

How the Stars Fell into the Sky

Author: Jerrie Oughton
Illustrator: Lisa Desimini
ISBN: 978-0395779385
RL: 5.5
IL: Grades K-2
Genre: Legend
This story is a Navajo legend on how the
stars fell into the sky. It starts with the first
man and woman making the rules. They wanted all of the people to know the
rules but they could not decide where to write the rules so everyone could see
them read them. The two concluded on putting the laws into the sky, each law
was a star. Every night the girl would cautiously place each star. One night, a
coyote, typically a trickster character, asked what she was doing. In his mind, it
was way too tedious for him. He asked why she would want to do them every
night for the rest of her life. Eventually he throws all the stars into the sky before
she could stop him. Thats how the stars got where they are today!

Mama, Do You Love Me?

Author: Barbara M. Joosse
Illustrator: Barbara Lavallee
ISBN: 978-0877017592
RL: 2.9
IL: Grades K-2
Genre: Picture Storybook
This picture storybook is a simple way to show
a mothers love. In this story, the two main
characters are Inuit and there are many cultural ideas brought up. It shows the
culture of the Inuit people and the unconditional love of a mother. It is a simple
question and response format with the daughter thinking of different situations.
In the back of the book, there is a glossary for Inuit terms and a few pictures.

Medio Pollito
Author: Eric A. Kimmel
Illustrator: Valeria Docampo
ISBN: 978-0761457053
RL: N/A
IL: N/A
Genre: Folktale
This book is a Spanish folk tale about
Medio Pollito, half chick. The chick has one eye, one leg, one wing and only half
a beak. This chick has big dreams of seeing the King in Madrid. On his
adventure there many things stop him and they ask for help, initially he says no
but they beg and he helps them. Once hes done helping them they say if you
ever need a friend be sure to call me. Once he gets to the big city a chef takes
him and decides to cook him. At this point, all the friends he helped along his
way, came back to help him. The story ends with him perched on the tallest and
grandest cathedral in Madrid. This is the story behind the weather vane with the
chicken! This story has great pictures to help tell the story.

Michelle
Author: Deborah Hopkinson
Illustrator: AG Ford
ISBN: 978-0061827396
RL: N/A
IL: N/A
Genre: Biography, Picture Storybook
This is a great book for children to learn about their first lady, Michelle Obama.
This book talks all about Michelles life through pictures. It focuses on her life,
before all of the fame! The pictures in the book are not photographs but looks
like acrylic paintings and drawings. This book talk about the importance of
education which I think is great; its not always stressed as much as it should be.

Morning on the Lake

Author: Jan Bourdeau Waboose
Illustrator: Karen Reczuch
ISBN: 978-1550743739
RL: 2.8
IL: Grades K-2
Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction,
Picture Storybook
This story is about a young Ojibway boy and his grandfather. The book talks
about the grandfathers favorite places to be in the morning, at noon and at night
time. At each place, there is an animal which is significant. When they first
encounter the animals the boy is scared but he mimics his grandfather and he
interprets the cultural message behind each animal. During these times, the two
become significantly closer through their experiences.

One Grain of Rice

Author: Demi
Illustrator: Demi
ISBN: 978-0590939980
RL: 4.2
IL: Grades PreK-3
Genre: Fables, Folktales
This is a great story about greed which incorporates math. This story has a
background related to the people of India. The raja took all the peoples rice in
case there were ever to be a famine. The time came and he did not share the
rice with the people. Rani, a village girl, saw the rice sack had a hole in it and
she decided to pick up each grain of rice. The raja seen this and was ready to
scold her when she said she was bringing it back to him. He wanted to reward
her and each reward she thought of was very minimal to him. Finally he agreed
to her deal; the first day she would have one grain of rice, the following days he
would double the amount of the previous day, for thirty days. In the end she gets
almost all the rice back and she shares it with the people. This story breaks
down many days showing the mathematical part of the story.

Raven
Author: Gerald McDermott
Illustrator: Gerald McDermott
ISBN: 978-0152024499
RL: 2.8
IL: Grades K-2
Genre: Myth, Picture Storybook
The Raven is a trickster tale from the Pacific Northwest. The story begins in
darkness; everything is dark with no light. When raven was in search for light he
found Chief Skys house, there was a dim light. He saw the Chiefs daughter and
changes himself into a pine needle. During this transformation he lands in the
drinking water of the young girl, he is then swallowed. Over time the girl gives
birth to a child- Raven was reborn as a child. Raven-boy was in search for the
light. He finds the light, which happened to be the sun. Eventually, he turns back
into the raven and places the sun in the sky. This is the tale of how the earth got
the sun and there was light.

Salmon Boy
Author: Donna Joe
Illustrator: Charlie Craigan
ISBN: 978-0889711662
RL: N/A
IL: N/A
Genre: Legend, Picture Storybook
This story is about a boy who is taken by the
Salmon. He lived under water for a whole year with the salmon. He learned
many different traditions of the salmon people. The following year when they
returned to spawn the boy came back to his people. When he came back he told
them all about the Salmon people and the traditions. From that point on, the
Sechelt people never went hungry as long as they did not endanger the fish or
their environment.

The Colors of Us
Author: Karen Katz
Illustrator: Karen Katz
ISBN: 978-0805071634
RL: N/A
IL: Preschool-3
Genre: Picture Storybook, Contemporary
Realistic Fiction
The story starts out with a girl, Lena, who wants to paint a picture of her. Her
mother mentions walking around town, looking at all the different shades of skin
people have. The story has different ways of describing shades, through flavors
such as cinnamon or honey. I love how this book presents that everyone is
different, that we are our own entire individual person. The pictures in this book
are very simplistic but say so much. This book would be great for any age.

The Egyptian Cinderella

Author: Shirley Climo
Illustrator: Ruth Heller
ISBN: 978-0064432795
RL: 3.5
IL: Grades K-2
Genre: Fairy Tale, Picture Storybook,
Historical Fiction
This is an Egyptian version of the classic
Cinderella story. Rhodopis is different from
the other girls. She had green eyes, blond hair and fair, pink skin. She had no
friends or family, she had nothing. Her master seen her dancing and gave her,
her own pair of slippers. These slippers were rose-red and shone like diamonds.
The other servant girls were very jealous of these slippers. As she was cleaning
the falcon ended up taking one of her slippers. The falcon is a symbol of the
God Horus. As many other young girls are meeting the Pharaoh, the falcon
drops this slipper on his lap. The Pharaoh takes this as a sign from God and he
sets out to find the girl who owns that slipper.

The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses

Author: Paul Goble
Illustrator: Paul Goble
ISBN: 978-0689716966
RL: 4.7
IL: Grades 3-5
Genres: Picture Storybook
This story is about a Plains Native American
girl. This girl is in love with the tribes
horses, she has a special connection with
them as well. One night there was a storm;
all the horses of the herd ran far away from
their original grazing lands. When she
awakes, the stallion of the wild horses
invites her and the horses to live with them. Eventually, the girl becomes sick
and the only thing that will make her feel better is if she is with the wild horses
again. Ultimately, she becomes a wild horse of her own.

The Legend of the Lady Slipper

Author: Lise Lunge-Larsen and Margi
Preus
Illustrator: Andrea Arroyo
ISBN: 978-0395905128
RL: N/A
IL: Grades K-3
Genre: Legend
This story is Ojibwe tale about how the Lady Slipper came about. This book has
a foreword talking about the flower and history of it. The story has beautiful
pictures with many native words incorporated, not only in the story but also in
the pictures. The tribe has one boy who is very smart; he is the messenger of
the tribe. When the tribe becomes very ill they must visit another tribe across the
lake to get medicine. The boy gets sick and the sister decides it is her duty to
make the journey through the storm. Once she gets the medicine she heads
back to her village but ends up losing her moccasins through the snow. With a
snow storm going on, her feet continue to bleed, leaving a blood trail. Spring
comes and where she lost her moccasins and where her trail was, there were
lady slipper plants there.

The Rough-Faced Girl

Author: Rafe Martin
Illustrator: David Shannon
ISBN: 978-0698116269
RL: 5.5
IL: Grades 3-5
Genres: Folktales and Myths
This is another version of the classic
Cinderella story, with a Native American
twist. This story is based off an
Algonquin tribe off the shores of Lake Ontario. The rough-faced girl gets her
name from always tending the fire and being abused by her two other unkind
sisters. There is an invisible being, who every young girl dreams of marrying, but
his sister is the one who questions the young girls. The two sisters get all new
jewelry, dresses and moccasins for their journey to prove they have seen the
invisible being. Of course, these two sisters were lying and neither of them had
the chance to marry him. The rough-faced girl tries her hardest to look her best
and she decides that she will talk to the invisible beings sister. Sure enough, she
was telling the truth, she seen him everywhere she looked. This story shows that
whats on the inside is what really matters.

The Snowy Day

Author: Ezra Jack Keats
Illustrator: Ezra Jack Keats
ISBN: 978-014501827
RL: 3.2
IL: Grades K-2
Genre: Picture Storybook,
Contemporary Realistic Fiction
This picture story book is a
simple story about a boy, Peter,
and his experience with snow. The story talks about different ways that he
enjoys snow. The perfect example to show that less is more! The pictures in this
book are so simple but they show so much!

Whoever You Are

Author: Mem Fox
Illustrator: Leslie Staub
ISBN: 978-0152060305
RL: 1.6
IL: Grades K-2
Genre: Picture Storybook
This is a very simplistic book about the
different cultures that are around the
world. She talks about how everyone is different, whether it is in their looks or
their lifestyles. The book uses simple language and pictures tell the story just as
well as the words. These pictures are phenomenal. Fox talks about many
different aspects, starting small and going more in-depth. This book shows
children that whats on the outside does not matter; we are all the same, all over
the world.