IKTOMI AND THE BUZZARD
by Paul Goble
He never learns. Strolling along in his eagle feathers ("I have an excellent self-image today"), Iktomi comes to a river, hitches a ride across on a buzzard's back, is summarily dumped into a hollow tree trunk for making rude gestures, and tricks two passing women ("Girls believe anything I tell them") into setting him free. As always, Goble combines impeccable documentation with strikingly beautiful renditions of stylized animals and meticulously detailed motifs drawn from traditional Native American art. With each misadventure, Iktomi has sounded feistier and more modern; here, as he falls through the sky he rails against "that white guy, Paul Goble," who is "stealing my stories and making money off of them." An unforced mixture of the contemporary and the timeless, at once outrageous and hilarious. (Folklore/Picture book. 6+)