Soft Child: How Rattlesnake Got Its Fangs
Book Review:
This story is a Native American folktale told by the Tohono O'odham
peoples of the Arizona plateau and basin lands. Joe Hayes retells this
origin tale wrapped in Kay Sather's artistic talents in the original
tradition of these people. The story begins with the creator of all
thing, the Sky God, creating all living creatures, and allowing each
of its kind to choose one special talent or defense mechanism by which
to protect themselves during their physical life journey on Earth. Each
animal chooses a different gifting which will ward off predators, except
for Softchild, a mild-mannered snake, who chooses for the Sky God to
fashion a rattle that he can wear so that all the other animals can
hear him and not step upon him. The other animals think this is hilarious
and ridicule him by kicking him up in the air. The Sky God feels compassion
on the rattlesnake, and walks with him into the woods one evening, where
he makes Softchild set of venomous fangs from a devil's claw purse.
Softchild would no longer be picked on by the other animals as the jack
rabbit discovers at the conclusion of this book.
This book brings to life the traditional Tohono O'odham creation story,
and provides a creative way for children to understand not only the
animals who live in our world, but also introduce them to the ideologies
and culture of the Southwest native Americans. This entertaining is
different from the many coyote stories that are present in much of traditional
folktales. Here we have a rattlesnake, who in his good nature, has to
develop the deadliest defense mechanism of all, a venomous bite. I feel
that this story provides more than just a nice fable for young children
to enjoy, but it also introduces them to the beginning of understanding
why our world works the way in which it does. For example, in this story
(as is true in many native Americana folktales) the storyteller is showing
that an animal is not inherently evil because it possesses a defense
mechanism. Here the creature has a defense mechanism out of necessity
and not evil intent, a concept which is all too often muddled in modern
mediums.
I believe that this story is an excellent one to share with a child
of an elementary school age. Kay Sather supports the story with vivid
and lifelike sketch drawing of the events that occur in the story within
the pages of the book. She renders all of the artwork in an array of
black and white contours and texture, and wonderfully brings the text
to life. Joe Hayes does a beautiful job in keeping the story pure of
censorship and modern ideals. Once again, I would encourage teachers
who are interested in sharing Southwestern culture to check this book
out of the library and to visit our online Southwest website at ...
About the Book | Book
Review | Children's Voices | About
the Reviewer