The Woman Who Fell from the Sky: The Iroquois Story of Creation [Hardcover]

John Bierhorst (Author), Robert Andrew Parker (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1993 | Age Level: 5 and up

A fresh, authoritative retelling of the Iroquois creation story, in which the world as we know it today begins with a woman who fell from the sky and her two small children. Robert Andrew Parker's luminous paintings add spectacular details to this simple, yet profound, tale of our beginnings and of the mystery and harmony of the universe. Full color.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this story from the Six Nations, a husband "in the sky country" grows jealous of his wife's pregnancy and pushes her through a hole. She lands softly on the back of a turtle, and creates the land, the stars and the sun. She also gives birth to twins, Flint and Sapling, the first as hard as the other is gentle, who play a part in their mother's work--"Sapling . . . created fish. But Flint threw small bones into them, to make life more difficult . . . " All three return to the sky, where people's thoughts can reach them in the smoke of their fires. This rather noncohesive rendition by Bierhorst, known for his retellings of American Indian stories for older readers, may prove confusing for younger audiences, as several loose ends are left dangling (albeit authentically so). Nevertheless, the story's discontinuities do not seriously detract from a gentle, sensible tale that explains both the rough and the smooth in our world, and significantly portrays a woman as creator. Parker's loosely modeled, intensely colored gouache and pastel illustrations echo the tale's primitive origins and continue this team's fruitful collaboration, also seen in The Monkey's Haircut and The Whistling Skeleton. Ages 5-up.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

K Up-- A man and a woman live on island in the sky, lit by a shining tree. When the woman hears her children speaking from within her, her jealous husband uproots the tree and pushes her through the hole. Her fall to the water below is cushioned by birds, and she lands on a turtle's back. After creating the earth, stars, and sun, the sky woman bears twin sons: Sapling, who is responsible for making plants, fish, rivers, and humans, and Flint, who puts tiny bones in the fish, makes snow and monsters, and causes the rivers to run one-way only. The brothers decide to leave Earth and, in choosing different paths, divide the Milky Way. Sky Woman also flies up, on the fire's smoke, telling the people that their thoughts also can rise. The final page contains their prayers of thanks. Bierhorst has done an extraordinary job of adapting anthropological sources of Six Nations lore. Parker's equally extraordinary watercolors provide a fitting complement. Intensely hued, soft-edged, flecked with light, these pictures are splendid but not fussy. Like creation itself, they have an unfinished quality. Delicate pen strokes suggest details and motion; faces are sketched rather than delineated. The combination of lapis blue and a flamelike red-orange makes for pages of incandescent loveliness. This exceptional book has an interest and appeal beyond its Native American subject matter. --Patricia Dooley, University of Washington, Seattle
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 30 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co (March 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688106803
• ISBN-13: 978-0688106805
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,189,824 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review of The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, March 6, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Woman Who Fell from the Sky: The Iroquois Story of Creation (Library Binding)

A woman falling from the sky country lands on the mud covered turtle with the help of the ducks and water animals. All of which were created while she was falling. With her powers of creation she made the mud grow and grow, eventually becoming the size of the Earth. Her two children came from underneath her heart, Sapling and Flint, who helped create all the parts of the Earth. Sapling and Flint fly up to the sky when they have finished each going their separate ways. Supposedly we can see their separate paths in the Milky Way. I enjoyed this different perspective of how the Earth was created. It is a good way to introduce a unit about Native Americans to a class. Also it will give them a different way of looking at the world. I think this book can be used with children of all ages because the pictures are enjoyable and go along with the story.