Summary
Two tales, set in a time "when animals and human beings still talked to each other," display Thomas King's cheeky humor and master storytelling skills. Freshly illustrated and reissued as an early chapter book, these stories are perfect for newly independent readers.
In Coyote Sings to the Moon, Old Woman and the animals sing to the moon each night. Coyote attempts to join them, but his voice is so terrible they beg him to stop. He is crushed and lashes out -- who needs Moon anyway? Furious, Moon dives into a pond, plunging the world into darkness. But clever Old Woman comes up with a plan to send Moon back up into the sky and, thanks to Coyote, there she stays.
In Coyote's New Suit, mischievous Raven wreaks havoc when she suggests that Coyote's toasty brown suit is not the finest in the forest, thus prompting him to steal suits belonging to all the other animals. Meanwhile, Raven tells the other animals to borrow clothes from the humans' camp. When Coyote finds that his closet is too full, Raven slyly suggests he hold a yard sale, then sends the human beings (in their underwear) and the animals (in their ill-fitting human clothes) along for the fun. A hilarious illustration of the consequences of wanting more than we need.
Key Text Features
table of contents
illustrations
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.5
Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.
Thomas King was born in 1943 in Sacramento, California to a Cherokee father and a mother of Greek and German descent. He attended the University of Utah where he received a Ph. D. in Literature.
His works focus mainly on Native American way of life. His first novel, Medicine River was made into a television movie. His second novel, Green Grass, Running Water won him the Canadian Authors Award for Fiction and it was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award in 1993. In 2003, he received the National Aboriginal Achievement Award. His most recent title DreadfulWater Shows Up, is written under the pseudonym Hartley Goodweather.
He resides in Canada and is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Guelph.
(Bowker Author Biography)