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Coyote Tales

ebook
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available

Two tales, set in a time "when animals and human beings still talked to each other," display Thomas King's cheeky humor and master storytelling skills. Freshly illustrated and reissued as an early chapter book, these stories are perfect for newly independent readers.

In Coyote Sings to the Moon, Old Woman and the animals sing to the moon each night. Coyote attempts to join them, but his voice is so terrible they beg him to stop. He is crushed and lashes out — who needs Moon anyway? Furious, Moon dives into a pond, plunging the world into darkness. But clever Old Woman comes up with a plan to send Moon back up into the sky and, thanks to Coyote, there she stays.

In Coyote's New Suit, mischievous Raven wreaks havoc when she suggests that Coyote's toasty brown suit is not the finest in the forest, thus prompting him to steal suits belonging to all the other animals. Meanwhile, Raven tells the other animals to borrow clothes from the humans' camp. When Coyote finds that his closet is too full, Raven slyly suggests he hold a yard sale, then sends the human beings (in their underwear) and the animals (in their ill-fitting human clothes) along for the fun. A hilarious illustration of the consequences of wanting more than we need.

Key Text Features
table of contents
illustrations

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.5
Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.

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    • Kirkus

      July 15, 2017
      Two republished tales by a Greco-Cherokee author feature both folkloric and modern elements as well as new illustrations.One of the two has never been offered south of the (Canadian) border. In "Coyote Sings to the Moon," the doo-wop hymn sung nightly by Old Woman and all the animals except tone-deaf Coyote isn't enough to keep Moon from hiding out at the bottom of the lake--until she is finally driven forth by Coyote's awful wailing. She has been trying to return to the lake ever since, but that piercing howl keeps her in the sky. In "Coyote's New Suit" he is schooled in trickery by Raven, who convinces him to steal the pelts of all the other animals while they're bathing, sends the bare animals to take clothes from the humans' clothesline, and then sets the stage for a ruckus by suggesting that Coyote could make space in his overcrowded closet by having a yard sale. No violence ensues, but from then to now humans and animals have not spoken to one another. In Eggenschwiler's monochrome scenes Coyote and the rest stand on hind legs and (when stripped bare) sport human limbs. Old Woman might be Native American; the only other completely human figure is a pale-skinned girl. Though usually cast as the trickster, Coyote is more victim than victimizer, making this a nice complement to other Coyote tales. (Fiction. 9-11)

      COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • The Horn Book

      July 1, 2018
      This slim volume collects two previously, separately published tales by consummate First Nations storyteller King, with new black-and-white illustrations. Both stories are set "a long time ago," before humans and animals stopped talking to each other, and feature Coyote less as devious trickster and more as hapless dupe. King's sense of humor is on full display, and he enlivens the tales with gleeful, effortless anachronisms.

      (Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

    • The Horn Book

      May 1, 2018
      This slim volume collects two previously published tales by consummate First Nations storyteller King (author of two earlier and memorably entertaining Coyote titles, A Coyote Columbus Story and A Coyote Solstice Tale, rev. 11/09), with new and humorous black-and-white illustrations. Both stories are set a long time ago, before humans and animals stopped talking to each other (indeed, the second story, Coyote's New Suit, explains how that happened) and feature Coyote less as devious trickster and more as hapless dupe. King's signature sense of humor is on full display throughout, and he enlivens the tales with gleeful, effortless anachronisms: in the first story, Coyote Sings to the Moon, the vacationing Moon relaxes on a beach towel under a beach umbrella, and the animals who try to sing her back throw in a little doo-wop. martha v. parravano

      (Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:4.1
  • Lexile® Measure:570
  • Interest Level:K-3(LG)
  • Text Difficulty:2-3

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Check out what's being checked out right now Content of this digital collection is funded by your local Minuteman library, supplemented by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.