Trickster: Native American Tales, A Graphic Collection by Matt DembickiMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
At the end of Trickster, Dembicki’s note explains the why of this collection - to fill a void and create something completely new. Trickster tales as comics are different from how I’ve seen them presented, but the form lends itself well to the telling. While Dembicki himself is white, his "authority" comes as a comic book creator. He states that he worked to find Native American storytellers willing to share their stories, along with artists of their choosing. Each contributor has their own background notes, and general trickster information is given on the back cover copy. This book was written for children and adults, and could be enjoyed as a read aloud/read together as seeing the artwork is half the reading process. There are 21 tales, all varied in content and artistic style, which makes the organization seem more random. The illustrations themselves range from cartoonish to realistic, some enhancing their tale and others not as much.
I found The Juniper Tree and Other Tales to be a difficult collection to get into, though I did enjoy the stories I’m more familiar with. This collection, according to the book jacket, intends to restore the selected tales with faithful translations, and they definitely aren’t watered down. The tales are intense, and the narrative style fits the tradition of oral storytelling.Though only 27 out of 210 stories are represented in this collection, they are spread out between two volumes and range from well-known to often forgotten. It seems as though these stories are meant to be read independently of each other, and read aloud by an adult to a child (or just as an adult).There is one illustration for each story; they aren’t particularly integral, though they do set up the scene for the story.
Like many folktale collections, The People Could Fly was written to record and preserve oral tales. This is explained in the introduction, along with the way the book is organized (by theme). These four themes group together like stories (about six per theme, for a total of 24 stories) in a way that someone could request one about animals or a supernatural one for storytime. Hamilton also includes source notes in the introduction, going into more detail at the conclusion of each tale. She makes it clear she wants to keep the style, while also telling the tales in her own voice. The stories themselves are intended for the adult storyteller, with illustrations every few pages to enhance the stories.
Both entertaining and educational, Tales Our Abuelitas Told is just as the title states - both authors share stories they grew up with, including source notes, background information, and their personal relationships to the tales. These stories are traditional, each originating from a different location, though some have been revised or are composite tales, mixing similar stories told in several countries. This collection was my favorite of the four I read for class, and the narrative style really lends itself to storytime. Though there are only 12 tales collected, their themes and content vary so that each one can be told independently. The illustrations are colorful, highlighting details of each story.
Mysterious Tales of Japan by Rafe MartinMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This collection, which I read in addition to the above, is meant to embrace the “fleeting yet haunting beauty we know from life,” and is filled with spiritual tales - ghostly, eerie, and refreshing. Martin invites readers to “walk in the moonlight of imagination” as they read stories from the Zen, Buddhist, and Shinto traditions. Most stories were originally collected in the early 1900s, though Martin infuses them with his own style, and each story concludes with a note on its origin. Jesus and I read one of these each night (or rather, I read to him) until we finished the collection, and experiencing the tales at that pace was perfect for cool fall nights.
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