And It Is Still that Way

Title: And it is Still that Way Author: Arizona Indian Children Collected: Byrd Baylor Illustrator: n/a
Publisher: Arizona; Charles Scribner’s and Sons

Genre: Folk Literature Level: Intermediate Number of pages: 83 Pub. Date: 1976

Summary :

This book is a collection of Indian Legends told from the perspective of children. It is split up into six sections. My favorite section was “Why Animals Are the Way They Are”.  This section talks all about things that animals have done that cause them to be the way we know them. Of these stories, my favorite was “Why Dogs Sniff”; this talks about dogs loosing their tails when they take them off to swim. This why they have to sniff other dogs tail area so that they can find their own tails again. I think this is hilarious.

Critique: 

According to the cover of the book these collections of stories are legends. However, I believe that they are actually Folktales. Legends are based loosely historical event. However, many of these stories are more an explanation for why certain things are the way they are. This is one of the characteristics of a folk tale. These stories also talk about the lives of people and animals, another trait of folk tales. This book is a high quality traditional tale and integrates the traditional native culture into the stories. Overall, this book brought together many good aspects of folk literature.

Response:

This story reminded me a lot of my favorite teacher in junior high. She was Native American and use to teach a 9 week-long class about Native American’s. She would tell us legends of her people. I always enjoyed this more than most of my classes because the folk tales fascinate me. The reason

Assignments:

After: The students will create their own legends about something that animals do that is not easily explained. These legends should be about 1 page long.