Raven Finds the Daylight and other American Indian Stories

2012 GOLD MEDAL WINNER, MOONBEAM AWARDS

Why must the weather turn cold in the winter? What if daylight were stolen and hidden away, so that only the moon lit the landscape? Where do people go when they die, and why can they never return?

Wherever stories are told, in whatever language, life and death hold center stage, along with pain and glee, mystery and magic, fools and foes, deceit and decency. This book has them all. Here are tales that seek to explain the world, dispel its darkness, and celebrate its light.

The stories in Raven Finds the Daylight and Other American Indian Stories were collected by the anthropologist Franz Boas when he lived among the tribes of the Pacific Northwest early in the 20th century. They were originally published in the form of notes, often short and incomplete. By embellishing these notes, Paul M. Levitt and Elissa S. Guralnick seek to tell the stories anew. The illustrations by Carolynn Roche further heighten their captivating charm.

So, meet a sorcerer whose magic can turn a horse into a loon, a man who became a bush-tailed rat, a girl whose sons were born as puppies, and an Indian tribe that sought the power of shamans to escape white men bent on destroying them.