From Publishers Weekly
A smooth-tongued snake takes on the role of tempter and raconteur in a pleasing original story inspired by a Native American folktale. "Once upon the time of no stories," begins Davol (The Paper Dragon), creating and maintaining an appropriately timeless aura. On separate occasions, siblings Beno and Allita are individually sent by their mother to gather fruit for the family. Each encounters a sly snake that offers to tell them stories in return for the fruit they've just picked. As neither child has ever heard a story before, each accepts the snake's offer and is regaled with various myths and dramatic accounts. Mama and Papa, while deprived of strawberries and raspberries, are eventually rewarded with the entertaining fare that Beno and Allita have collected instead. Davol's folktale rhythm and simple imagery are just right for a tale about the origin of story. Heo (One Sunday Morning) creates a smiling, blank-eyed clan that recall wooden dolls. Her cheerfully cluttered pencil-and-oil compositions hum with activity. Drawing her subjects first people, chickens, fireflies, apple trees then painting background colors around them and leaving bits of white paper exposed, Heo gives her work extra pop. Ages 5-9.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Gr. 2-4, younger for reading aloud. Who told the first story? This imaginative tale, suggested by a traditional Seneca story, credits a snake. In a time long ago, when there were no stories, a family lived a quiet, busy life: Mother spun wool, Father tended goats, and the children foraged for fruit. On successive days the son and daughter are sent to collect fruit in a bucket. Each child meets a magical snake who trades stories for food, telling tales until the children's buckets are empty. Mother wonders why children return empty-handed, but there's no mention of the snake. The full story comes out in humorous fashion after the children trade apples for entertainment and their father spots an amazingly lumpy (apple-stuffed) snake in the forest. Then the laughing boy and girl retell the stories they have heard, and their parents pass them on. Heo's artwork, strongly contemporary with a folk-art flavor, is packed with brightly colored details drawn from the snake's stories. It offers lots to look at as Davol's narrative cleverly contemplates the genesis of storytelling--an activity close to the hearts of us all.
Connie FletcherCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
