COYOTE GOES WALKING

In his first solo, Pohrt (Bruce Donehower's Miko, Little Hunter of the North, 1990, etc.) paints exquisite pictures, but the four stories he adapts don't quite add up to a complete portrait of the mythic figure of Native American legend. The introduction emphasizes Coyote's trickster nature; the tales portray him more as a victim of his own mischief. In episode one, he acts like a god, creating people out of mud. He quickly descends in stature, attempting to crash a party of mice inside an elk skull, which winds up on his head. Then he tries to mimic a woodpecker with disastrous results. The final episode shows him learning a lesson at the hands of a buffalo ghost. The stories are too meager to satisfy, but there's a nice verve in the telling, and the perfectly rendered animals are a joy to behold. (Picture book. 4-8)