Teachers who work with English as a Second Language learners will find ESL/ESOL/ELL/EFL reading/writing skill-building children's books, stories, activities, ideas, strategies to help PreK-3, 4-8, and 9-12 students learn to read.
Trickster Tales
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Tricksters such as Coyote, Rabbit, Nanabosho, and Iktomi are among the favorite characters of American Indian lore. Our booklist includes a variety of trickster tales, from a story about the birth of Nanabosho to playful, modern adaptations in which Coyote travels to New York City — and the mall!
A Coyote Columbus Story
Product Description: Coyote rules her world, until a funny-looking stranger named Columbus (looking for humans to sell in Spain) changes her plans. Thomas King uses a bag of literary tricks to shatter the stereotypes surrounding Columbus's voyages, inviting children to laugh at the crazy antics of Coyote, who unwittingly allows Columbus to engineer the downfall of his human friends.
Beaver Steals Fire: A Salish Coyote Story
A long time ago, fire belonged only to the animals in the land above, not to those on the earth below. Curlew, keeper of the sky world, guarded fire and kept it from the earth. Coyote, however, devised a clever plan to steal fire, aided by Grizzly Bear, Wren, Snake, Frog, Eagle, and Beaver. Beaver Steals Fire is an ancient and powerful tale springing from the hearts and experiences of the Salish people of Montana.
Coyote and the Sky: How the Sun, Moon, and Stars Began
According to Santa Ana Pueblo legend, the animals' spirit Leader created the sun, moon, and stars by using woven yucca mats and hot coals. He selected certain animals to climb from their homes in the Third World up to the Fourth World, but Coyote was forbidden to accompany them because he was always causing trouble and stealing food from the others. Regardless of what he was told, Coyote refused to stay in the Third World. Coyote's punishment is a lesson in what happens to animals, or people, when they refuse to obey instructions.
Coyote Christmas: A Lakota Story
Harry N. Abrams: Sneaky Coyote is known in the Native American tradition as the Trickster. He knows that there's one character people can't refuse on Christmas Eve: Santa Claus! Using straw for a jolly belly and wool for his Santa's beard, the Trickster fools a family into welcoming him to their Christmas meal. But just when he thinks he's gotten away with his ruse, taking their food and leaving the family with nothing, he's foiled by a strange occurrence. Could it be a Christmas miracle?
Coyote in Love With a Star: Tales of the People
In this tale, Coyote leaves his home on a Potawatomi reservation on the Plains to find work in New York City. Once there, he falls in love with a star and leaves the Earth to dance with her. When he asks to return, she drops him. He lands in Central Park, making a big hole (the Reservoir), and his descendants howl at the night sky to scold her. — School Library Journal (Note: This story, featuring the World Trade Center, was written in 1998.)
Coyote Stories of the Montana Salish Indians
Here are traditional Salish Indian coyote stories, recorded by Salish elders and illustrated by Indian artists from the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana. Written at a fourth grade level, these legends are meant to be enjoyed by people of all ages — from three to eighty-three — just as they have been for generations among the Salish, who often gathered together to listen to these stories during the cold, dark Montana winters.
How Rabbit Tricked Otter and Other Cherokee Trickster Stories
This collection of 15 Cherokee tales introduces the trickster-hero Rabbit, the most important character portrayed in the animal stories of the Cherokee culture. The surefooted messenger who carries important news to his animal friends near and far, Rabbit is charming and mischievous. Sometimes he wins and sometimes he loses, but somehow Rabbit always survives.
The Birth of Nanabosho
When Nonie and Billy go to visit their grandparents, Mishomis tells them a story about how Nanabosho, the son of West Wind and grandson of Nokomis, is born into this world, and how he grows and learns of the world around him. There is much cultural information here, and this is an excellent starting place for understanding the great and beloved hero and trickster. — Oyate
The Trickster and the Troll
Product Description: The friendship and adventures of Iktomi, the trickster figure from Lakota legend, and Troll, the familiar character from Norse mythology, are the subject of this imaginative, marvelously spun tale. While searching for his Norwegian immigrant family, the gentle, lumbering Troll meets Iktomi on the Great Plains. The vain, opportunistic Trickster soon discovers that he too has lost his people. When Iktomi and Troll eventually find their peoples, they are neither recognized nor wanted. The lonely Trickster and the Troll find solace in their friendship and take refuge in a cave until they are rediscovered and loved again.
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