Coyote & Little Turtle: A Traditional Hopi Tale

Book by Sekaquaptw, Emory, Pepper, Barbara, Talashoema, Herschel

Presenting Hopi and English text alongside illustrations by Hopi children, this volume sacrifices story-appeal to a sociocultural agenda. Expectations fizzle with the opaque beginning: "Everyone was living at Oraibi. The Turtles lived near Leenangwva. Now, Coyote lived at Ismo'wala." (That "Leenangwva" means "the Flute Spring" leaks out in an entry in the dense glossaries at the end.) The rest of the folktale, in which Turtle outwits the trickster Coyote, is similarly lackluster in its English translation, and the pictures, drawn by students at the Hotevilla-Bacavi Community School in Third Mesa, Ariz., neither help focus nor embellish the text. As a step in preserving Hopi culture, however, this effort may serve a specialized audience. The unique appendices, addressed to adults, offer an overview of the Hopi language, with discussions of word order, declensions, etc. Also included are Hopi/English and English/Hopi glossaries; surprisingly, there is no pronunciation guide. A companion title, Coyote & the Winnowing Birds, is to be released this month. Ages 6-9.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.