Customer Reviews

Arrow to the Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The story here is a Native American Pueblo tale. It begins when "Long ago the Lord of the Sun sent the spark of life to earth." "It traveled down the rays of the sun, through the heavens, and it came to the Pueblo." "There it entered the home of a young maiden." "In this way, the Boy came into the world of men."

Growing up alone with his mother, the boy is derided by the other boys. "Where is your father?" Finally, the boy could take it no more. He left to find his father. The Corn Planter and the Pot Maker could not help him. But the wise Arrow Maker could. The Arrow Maker made the boy into an arrow and shot him into the sun.

The boy claimed to be the son of the Lord of the Sun, but the Lord of the Sun demanded proof. Tests were involved, but the boy was not afraid. He successfully went through the four kivas of lions, serpents, bees and lightning. After the kiva of lightning, he was transformed and was filled with the "power of the sun." The father and his son rejoiced.

The Lord of the Sun said, "Now you must return to earth, my son, and bring my spirit to the world of men." He was sent back as an arrow. "The people celebrated his return in the Dance of Life."

As you can see, this story is a very conceptual one that deals with spiritual matters involving cultural traditions that are probably unfamiliar to your child. The book will be easier to understand if you explain a little about the religious beliefs of the Pueblo Native Americans before reading this book to your child. You will also need to explain the point about how not having a father present can create a stir. The arrow transfers can be explained as magic, and the search itself can be likened to a quest of the sort that knights often undertook. The spiritual connection can be explained in terms of your own religious beliefs or tradition.

The story is also a metaphor for the planting cycle, as well as the cycle of life and death.

The key reason to read this book is to see some of the most remarkable modern renderings ever created of classic southwestern Native American pictograms. These pictograms are built from stylized geometric components combined into other geometric forms in a palette built mostly from yellow, orange, red, brown, and black. As accents, turquoise and green are added. These images are created with gouache (a thick form of water color) and preseparated black lines. These geometric shapes take literal beings and turn them into spiritual, conceptual ones. If you are like me, the transformation of the boy into the power of the rainbow against a sky of black will take your breath away. Not surprisingly, this book won Mr. McDermott the coveted Caldecott Medal in 1975 as the best illustrated children's book.

After you finish enjoying the story of the book, I suggest that you also help your child understand some of the legends of other peoples in other times about planting and harvesting, as well as the manhood tests. If you are not familiar with any, The Golden Bough can be a good source for you. I remember being impressed as a child by how similar the beliefs are across cultures about common experiences like those related to agriculture. That impression helped me be more open about what appeared to be differences when I met people from other cultures. I was inclined to assume that we had more in common than our different clothes, manners, and languages would have suggested.

Connect to the funamental way the sun serves as the ultimate source of food and power for us all!

With dismay, I read the customer reviews of this book. There are 19 Pueblos in New Mexico, and more in Arizona. Which Pueblo is this book about? There is great variation from one to the other. Most troubling, however, is McDermott's presentation of the kiva. Our kivas are not places of trial. They are more akin to churches and temples where cultural knowledge is passed on from one generation to the next. Finally, extended families are central to Pueblo culture, and there is no stain of illegitimacy conferred on those who don't know who their father is. This book should NOT be used to teach about Pueblo Indians. These errors are major ones.

Arrow to the sun is a fascinating story of a boy's trials to find the answer to a question. A skill you can emphasize with your reader is to retell the series of trials. Questioning during the telling of a story also reinforces comprehenhsion: What was the boy in search of? Why did the boy become an arrow? What other story can you think of where a character must go through trials to prove him or herself? Who are the Pueblo people? This last question will lead to a study of other Native American cultures and folktales. Teachers: run with this! Use this story as a springboard to the study of the Anasazi,LaKota,Aztec,or Mayan.

This children's book is based on an old Pueblo Indian tale about a boy who is son of the Sun and who wishes to meet his father. He is shaped into an arrow and shot towards the Sun. He meets several tests and his father has him return to Earth to teach man of the Sun's spirit. The book won the 1975 Caldecott Medal for best illustrations in a book for children. Children will love the story and the colors of the book have a great appeal.

My mother read this book to me when I was a child, and I remember loving it, but hadn't seen it in probably 15 years until I bought it for my nephew. It is as good as I remember.

I can attest to the fact that the high contrast, brightly colored drawings are mesmerizing for a small child. The best part of the book is when the boy must complete four tasks for the sun god to prove himself. The tasks are not narrated, you get to see how the tasks are completed from how the drawings change. It's so cool! I felt very smart as a little kid being able to discover what he did and figure it our for myself.

On a cultural note, the narrative is similar to the Christ story. Mother gives birth to the boy (a virgin birth) after the sun god sends a ray of energy to her. The boy grows up and wants to know who his father is, and goes on a quest to find him and prove that he is indeed the son of the sun god. (That's why he becomes an arrow to the sun!)

I think it's good for a child to be exposed to this story to begin to understand the universal elements of religion and that all cultures have a lot in common. Even those that seem strange are not so different from our own.

To those who pay attention to the myths of various cultures, the fundamental premise of this book comes as no surprise. The Sun, in this case a god to the Pueblo Indians, sends a spark of life down to Earth and impregnates a woman. The child is a boy who is ridiculed by the other boys because he has no father. He then goes on a search for his father and gets no results until he consults the arrow maker.
The arrow maker understands the situation and turns the boy into an arrow. He then shoots him into the sky so that the boy can converse with the Sun. After he claims to be to be the son of the Sun, the boy is given a series of trials, which he passes. He is then returned to the Earth and acknowledged by all as the son of the Sun. There is great rejoicing among the people as they now appreciate who the boy really is.
This is a delightful tale that is illustrated in the style of the Pueblo Indians. The drawings are made using almost exclusively lines drawn at right angles. Most shapes are made from a combination of rectangular figures, yet so well done that it is still possible to detect the emotions of the characters. It is an excellent story for young children, it will teach them something about another culture and that is always a good thing.

This book captured the eye of my 3-year old and his daycare friends as soon as it was opened for the first time. The colors are full and rich, with emphasis on orange and black contrasts and there's even a vivid rainbow at the end. The story is easy to follow and your child can create his/or her own sounds for the four Kivas described within (Kiva of Lions, Serpents, Bees and Lighting!). One of George McDermott's best; highly recommended.

This book just calls to me. I love the words, I love the pictures. Most of the time when I read a book over and over I get bored with the book. But every time I read this book I love it even more. I give it 5 stars. I think it is the best book ever.

This is an inside look about Indian heritage and the kinds of myths they had in their times. The reader really gets a feel for how the strange boy feels when he gets picked on because he is different. This is a fictional and adventurous book with such great details that it almost seems real as you're reading it.
This story is set in a little pueblo where a mother is giving birth. Suddenly the God of the Sun sent down an arrow to the women and she gave birth to his son. As the little boy grows up, all the other boys make fun of him because he looks different and has no father. Then finally one day he sets off to find his father and to truly know who he is.
The author does such a fantastic job on his voice and sentence fluency that when you're reading the book it seems like you are the strange little boy. This is my favorite children's book because I read it over and over since I was a kid and I enjoy Indian myths. I also enjoy this book because the pictures are phenomenal and the colors are amazing.
People who like adventure and can relate to the little boy would love this outstanding book. This book is very inspiring and shows that you can do anything you want to if you try. I gave this book five out of five stars and I hope you'll like this awesome book just as much as I did.
By Tanner

Arrow to the Sun is a 1974 children's book by Gerald McDermott, adapted from Pueblo Indian myth. Here, the son of the Lord of the Sun strives to find and be accepted by his father.

The story is straightforward, as these folktales go. On its own, it's largely unremarkable. But McDermott's illustrations are mind-blowing.

Done in gouache and ink, the art features thick curves and right angles in a somewhat abstract style that's reminiscent of Pueblo art (it's also reminiscent of Atari 2600 graphics). McDermott's judiciously limited use of color heightens the art by drawing the focus to its texture and focusing on the mood of the story.

Arrow to the Sun is a fine children's book with some of the most spectacular illustrations ever; it's certainly McDermott's best work.