Kanahena: A Cherokee Folktale [Turtleback]

Susan L. Roth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1996

A retelling of the traditional Cherokee tale of Terrapin the trickster and how he outwitted the Bad Wolf and the Other Wolves.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While the Kanahena (corn meal and water) cooks over the fire, an old woman tells a girl about a clever turtle. Possum is tossing persimmons down from a tree to Terrapin, but Bad Wolf blocks the way and takes the fruit for himself. Then Bad Wolf (thanks to Possum's cunning) chokes on a particularly large persimmon and dies. Terrapin cuts off his ears to use for spoons for eating Kanahena. When the other wolves seek out Terrapin for revenge, the turtle outsmarts them all, but in the process his shell is crackedwhich is why turtles have shells with seams. Roth's collage illustrations are composed of bits of dried leaf (the veins of the leaf give the old woman's dress a bias-cut grain), felt and other textured materials. Earthy colors with zig-zags of orange and turquoise bring the story to its satisfying close with a recipe for Kanahena. Ages 6-up.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 2 Two stories of turtle as trickster. In Fire. . . , several animals try without success to steal fire from the Moon-god. Tortoise knows that he can do it, but he needs straw to capture fire. So Chameleon steals some for him, tricking the Moon-god's straw-keeper by changing color. This second theft parallels and foreshadows Tortoise's fire-theft, but introducing it has the effect of doubling back on the story line, interrupting the forward movement. It's a crowded story, full of characters and commotion. The trickery appeals, but this telling isn't as smooth or as merry as Ann Cameron's How Raven Freed the Moon (Harbour, 1985). In Roth's cut-paper collages, arrangements of brightly colored shapes against a black ground make a decorative page suggestive of African textile design. In Kanahena, Terrapin tricks a wolf pack that wants to destroy him for disrespectful behavior to one of their own. Using a familiar motif, he begs them not to do the one thing that he knows will save himthrow him into the water. But there's a lot more than that going on here, from the device of an old-woman narrator, to Terrapin's food-sharing visits to friends, to how Terrapin got the marks on his shell, to a recipe for making Kanahena (a cornmeal dish). It doesn't all quite hang together, leaving a sense of clutter. Collages of leaves and textured paper, while experimentally interesting, sometimes feel clumsy. Karen Litton, Confederation Centre Public Library, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Turtleback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Demco Media (August 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 060609508X
• ISBN-13: 978-0606095082
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,998,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Susan L. Roth is the author and illustrator of many wonderful books for children, including Hard Hat Area and the best-selling My Love for You. Her books have received such awards as the New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year, ABA Pick of the Lists, and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. She has three grown children and lives with her husband in New York City.