The Great Ball Game: A Muskogee Story - Hardcover

Bruchac, Joseph

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803715404 ISBN 13: 9780803715400

Publisher: Dial, 1994

Synopsis

A rousing folktale about an epic ball game between the Birds and the Animals, told by a renowned Native American storyteller, explains how the bat came to be accepted as an animal and why birds fly south in winter.

About this title

About the Author:

Joseph Bruchac is a highly acclaimed children's book author, poet, novelist and storyteller, as well as a scholar of Native American culture. Coauthor with Michael Caduto of the bestselling Keepers of the Earth series, Bruchac's poems, articles and stories have appeared in hundreds of publications, from Akwesasne Notes and American Poetry Review to National Geographic and Parabola. He has authored many books for adults and children including Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two, Skeleton Man, and The Heart of a Chief. For more information about Joseph, please visit his website www.josephbruchac.com.

From Publishers Weekly:

This adaptation of a popular Native American story pits Animals against Birds in a contest to settle an all-too-human question: Who's better? Here, it's the teeth versus the wings in stickball, a lacrosse-style game in which the players hold a stick in each hand. When the contestants take their sides, the anomalous Bat, who sports both teeth and wings, is rejected by both teams. Finally, Bear shows sympathy, saying, "You are not very big, but sometimes even the small ones can help." Bat is benched, however, until the Animals catch on to the Birds' obvious advantage: with ball in beak, the Birds fly high above the playing field. But as evening darkness descends, Bat flies into gear to win the game with his elusive, darting aerobatics. As the victor, Bat decrees that the Birds must leave for half the year. And, according to Muskogee legend, this resolution explains why bats are categorized as animals and why birds fly south for the winter. With clear, minimal language, Bruchac (see The Girl Who Married the Moon, reviewed below) wisely lets the myth carry itself. While the three-dimensional effect of Roth's (Fire Came to the Earth People) textured paper collages is striking and initially intriguing, the illustrations do not much embellish the sparely told story. But in its call for an athletic game to settle a dispute-and thereby avoid fighting-the book handily inverts the Greco-Roman tradition of sport as training for war. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dial
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0803715404
• ISBN 13: 9780803715400
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Roth Susan L.