|
From
www.amazon.com
From Publishers Weekly
This adaptation of a popular Native American story pits Animals
against Birds in a contest to settle an all-too-human question:
Who's better? Here, it's the teeth versus the wings in stickball, a
lacrosse-style game in which the players hold a stick in each hand.
When the contestants take their sides, the anomalous Bat, who sports
both teeth and wings, is rejected by both teams. Finally, Bear shows
sympathy, saying, "You are not very big, but sometimes even the
small ones can help." Bat is benched, however, until the Animals
catch on to the Birds' obvious advantage: with ball in beak, the
Birds fly high above the playing field. But as evening darkness
descends, Bat flies into gear to win the game with his elusive,
darting aerobatics. As the victor, Bat decrees that the Birds must
leave for half the year. And, according to Muskogee legend, this
resolution explains why bats are categorized as animals and why
birds fly south for the winter. With clear, minimal language,
Bruchac (see The Girl Who Married the Moon, reviewed below) wisely
lets the myth carry itself. While the three-dimensional effect of
Roth's (Fire Came to the Earth People) textured paper collages is
striking and initially intriguing, the illustrations do not much
embellish the sparely told story. But in its call for an athletic
game to settle a dispute-and thereby avoid fighting-the book handily
inverts the Greco-Roman tradition of sport as training for war. |
