Sister Rabbit's Tricks

by Emmett "Shkeme" Garcia, Victoria Pringle (Illustrator)

Overview

"It's no trick! Shkeme Garcia has written a simple fable that teaches a powerful lesson about jokes that go too far. Sister Rabbit's Tricks should be recommended reading for adults as well as kids."—Carla Aragón, author of Dance of the Eggshells

Sister Rabbit enjoys visiting her friends and relatives in the forest. She also enjoys playing tricks on the other animals, and sometimes Rabbit's tricks get her into trouble.

Inspired by the many rabbit stories from the pueblos of New Mexico, this story of Sister Rabbit and her antics shows us a trickster animal, wily and lovable, who can fool her friends but needs to learn some lessons about how to get along in life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826352682
Publisher:	University of New Mexico Press
Publication date:	02/01/2013
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 9.80(h) x 0.20(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 5 Years

About the Author

Emmett "Shkeme" Garcia (Santa Ana Pueblo) is the author of Coyote and the Sky (UNM Press), also illustrated with Victoria Pringle's cut-paper pictures.

Editorial Reviews

Garcia and Pringle, who previously collaborated on Coyote and the Sky (2006), return with a trickster tale starring Sister Rabbit, whose cruel jokes reveal why buzzards’ heads are bald, bees don’t like to be disturbed, and bald eagles’ heads are white. Pringle paints soft, naïf woodland scenes—Sister Rabbit looks especially innocent, which perhaps explains why the other animals are so willing to go along with her instructions. The rabbit cajoles Buzzard into participating in a Fire Dance, which burns off the colorful plumage on his head; persuades Bear that he should whack a beehive with a stick; and gets Eagle to stick his head in a hole filled with ash, turning it white (the effect of the third story is lessened by Pringle’s choice to paint Eagle’s head white both before and after the incident). Garcia’s pared-down storytelling is both accessible and entertaining (just right for storytime), and Sister Rabbit gets her comeuppance, forced to use her large ears and feet to avoid Buzzard, Bear, and Eagle, “who sometimes still chase her around the forest.” Ages 3–5. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

PreS-Gr 2—A mediocre trickster tale. Sister Rabbit has many friends and relatives in the forest, and sometimes she likes to play tricks on them. For instance, Buzzard once had many colorful feathers on his head, and he was quite proud of them. But Sister Rabbit convinces him to learn the Fire Dance in order to impress people. She places sticks and leaves on top of his head and sets them on fire, all the while encouraging him to dance. His feathers burn, and, "Today Buzzard does not have any more feathers on his head." Sister Rabbit goes on to trick other animals, but Eagle retaliates by threatening to eat her, and she runs away and hides, feeling sorry for hurting her friends. Pringle's sweet, colorful illustrations are pleasing to the eye and add much more to the story than its message. The rabbit's antics seem more like cruelty than trickery, and readers will see right through her "redemption." Stick with Gerald McDermott's Coyote: A Trickster Tale from the American Southwest (Harcourt, 1994) or Matt Dembicki's Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection (Fulcrum, 2010) for more pleasing tales.—Carol Connor, Cincinnati Public Schools, OH

School Library Journal