Why There is No Arguing in Heaven: A Mayan Myth - Hardcover

Deborah Nourse Lattimore

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060237171 ISBN 13: 9780060237172

Publisher: harper & row, 1989

Synopsis

Hunab Ku, the first Creator God of the Mayas, challenges the Moon Goddess and Lizard House to create a being to worship him, but the Maize God succeeds where the others fail.

About this title

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-6-- This creation myth, adapted from versions of the Popul Vuh, tells how the chief Mayan gods vie to win a place second to the Creator, by helping Hunab Ku to make creatures to worship them. But the animals cannot speak, and are scattered; the mud men and the wooden men cannot be understood and are destroyed. Then, with remnants of the mud and stick, the corn god plants seeds and brings about mankind. Hunab Ku is pleased, accords the corn god honor, and the strife ends. The literary retelling is echoed in a sophisticated format that incorporates Mayan glyphs into the design and extends them in color sections. The Hunab Ku pictured in a shattered stone fragment above Lattimore's closing note is the same as shown in the beginning; he is emerging in living color from a bas-relief of gray-green carving simulated in watercolor as if he has been gloriously restored. Lattimore uses this technique effectively throughout. Full-page paintings show the gods at their ease; the strange creations; the Mayas worshipping atop a pyramid, gods represented on stele. Endpaper charts of glyphs and their meanings can be used for fun by older children to locate and decode inscriptions and page numerations. A fascinating supplement for a study of the Maya and a hauntingly lovely picture book. --Ruth M. McConnell, San Antonio Public Library
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly

Hunab Ku, the Creator God of the Mayas, is weary of the squabbling between the Moon Goddess and Lizard House as to which of them should be the second-most important god. When Hunab Ku declares that whoever creates a being that will worship all the gods will win a place next to him, the Maize God watches the other two fight it out. They create men of mud, and then men of wood, but these do not make Hunab Ku happy. "They speak like twigs. They move like planting sticks. They think like stones. And they do not worship us." Only the Maize God, who respects the spirit of men, understands the elements that must go into their creation. And through time, he takes his place next to Hunab Ku. The book is only similar to Lattimore's previous works ( The Flame of Peace ; The Prince & the Golden Ax ) in that it replicates the authentic details of the culture--the artist seems to reinvent her style with each new work, to great effect. The storytelling and pictures dazzle with details; the endpapers depict an elaborate procession of stone-like carvings of symbols. Humor abounds; how refreshing to see a creation myth in which mistakes are made before the gods get it right! Ages 6-9.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: harper & row
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0060237171
• ISBN 13: 9780060237172
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 36