Fiona French

This retelling of an Algonquin folktale -- with a "different and happier ending" provided by the English adapter -- is about a tribal leader who gets revenge on another tribal leader's daughter who rudely spurns his wedding proposal. It's an odd story about a proud and petty man and a proud and petty woman being mean to each other until a wolf intervenes.

Interesting art, but the story has that sort of vague and stiff tone that oral stories can have when written down.

From the indicia: "Wild Wolf is inspired by a folktale called 'Moowis' from the Algonquin people of Canada and North-West USA. A version of this story called, 'The Snow Husband,' can be found in North American Indians by Lewis Spence."… (more)

Picture book. This book is about a man named Ojo who only looked out for himself and never helped the village with anything. One day he went out to hunt and got lost, it is in this jungle where he meets this magical being that makes him king as long as he learns to say "yes" and never opens this one door. So he does and he rules this small village and marries a beautiful woman who wants to open the forbidden door so he says "yes" and opens the door. When he does he falls out of rule and ends up back at his home village. It is here where he learns the balance between saying "yes" and "no."… (more)

This was a little bit longer than we usually get through in one sitting, and I was a little worried my kids (6.5 and 3) wouldn't make it. But they did! The story was really entertaining - I think the animals being both scary at first then helpful later was fascinating to the kids. The pictures were engaging and sparked more discussion than usual with my guys. We also had a lot of fun writing our names in hieroglyphs at the end of it all. Fun book for young kids interested in Egypt and/or hieroglyphs, codes, translations, etc.… (more)