Customer Reviews

Moons Cloud Blanket

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As a scholar of folkltales, it was a pleasure to find this lovely book included in the 2004 list of Notable Social Studies Books for Young People. The author has sensitively documented a Louisiana Native American creation story with spare and well-chosen language. Her use of image-filled repetition creates the relentless power of the storm brilliantly. As in most folktales, she keeps the focus on how the characters solve the problem before them thus emphasizing the Native American's relationship with the natural world. I look forward to more books by Rose Anne St. Romain.

I love tales about how things came to be. Rose Anne St. Romain treats us to a little known story originating among the Indian tribes of south Louisiana about how Spanish moss came to be when a woman seeks to save her children during a terrible flood. The repetitive lines of how the water rises is sure to be echoed by children during a story time as they wonder how these people will survive. And they do with the help of other forces of nature. I also enjoyed Joan Waites detailed pictures of the denizens of the swamp which children are sure to point out and St.Romain's personal note at the end of the book about her family's use of Spanish Moss. A must purchase for libraries in the deep South and a good addition elsewhere.