Eagle Boy: A Traditional Navajo Legend [Hardcover]

Gerald Hausman (Author), Cara Moser (Illustrator), Barry Moser (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up

A young boy is chosen by the eagles to journey to the sky to learn their sacred healing ways. Before the boy can receive this gift, he must prove himself to be both clever and brave. Only then will he be worthy of a new name, Eagle Boy. This magnificent myth is illustrated with soft pastels, evocative of the earth and sky of the great Southwest.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Serene, ethereal pastels underscore the dreamlike nature of this traditional Navajo legend, seamlessly retold by Hausman. Carried away by Father Eagle to the "country of clouds at the top of the sky," a Native American boy has an encounter with trickster Coyote, receives a new name and is finally returned to his family with the help of a pair of bumblebees and a sacred feather. Readers won't be surprised that, after such an adventure, the boy grows up to become a great medicine man. Moser pere et fille, who previously teamed up with Hausman for Turtle Island ABC, provide this tale with an eye-catching backdrop, saturated with the rich colors of a Southwest sunset and slightly blurred, as if softly obscured by the mists of time. Ages 5-9.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3-A boy "who dreamed of eagles" is caught up by Father Eagle, fed sacred cornmeal, wrapped in the sacred robes, and carried (along with a rock crystal and a sheep's horn to breathe through) to the top of the sky. There the Eagle Chief welcomes him to his "great white cloud house," but tells him not to go out alone. Tempted by Coyote, the boy disobeys and is turned into a coyote himself. Eagle Chief not only returns him to human form, but also gives him a new name of power, Eagle Boy, and sends him safely back to his hogan and family. Although the true significance of this story (the learning of the Eagle Way) is culturally specific to the Navajo, and its morality is alien (the boy is not punished for his disobedience but profits from it), the magic of flying with the godlike birds may still engage readers in the adventure. Almost every page is bordered with blue at the top; a layer of white cloud and tones of yellow and terra cotta in the middle; and vermilion at the foot of the page. It is this red rock-and-sky color scheme that speaks of Navajo land, rather than details of design or costume. A few closeups of the boy and the eagle, and an imaginative bird's-eye view of a hogan, are effective; the other soft, undetailed images are not striking or memorable.?Patricia (Dooley) Lothrop Green, St. George's School, Newport, RI
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers; 1st edition (February 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060211008
• ISBN-13: 978-0060211004
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,634,744 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am an inveterate storyteller, which is to say: I love to do it, am helpless not to do it, and I do it all the time, even when I am by myself there is an inner monologue going on in my head. This habit of privately roving around in the land of legends is something I've done for as long as I can remember. My mom worried about me when she saw that I spent too much time by myself. I would creep into a closet and close the door and in the silence of the darkness I would spin tales of all kinds. I was never lonely as a kid because I had the imagination of a wild thing, and I was content to play in the fields and valleys and secret caves of that imaginary world.