When Turtle Grew Feathers: A Tale from the Choctaw Nation
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
In this Choctaw variant of Aesop's fable "The Tortoise and the Hare," master storyteller Tim Tingle reveals some unexpected twists and expands the cast to include a wild turkey, a colony of ants, and a cheering squad of Little Bitty Turtles as well. When Rabbit boastfully challenges Turtle to a race, he gets his comeuppance and Turtle gets a little assist from his winged friend, Turkey. In the process, we learn why Turtle's shell is cracked and why you never see Rabbit racing Turtle today. The bold and vibrant illustrations capture not only the grasslands of the High Plains but also the demeanor of its animal inhabitants and the humor of the tale.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this version of the Rabbit and the Turtle fable, slow and steady does not win the race. Instead, an imposter-Turtle's friend Turkey, who has temporarily slipped inside the reptile's shell-soundly defeats Rabbit. Turkey feigns being a slowpoke as he waddles to the starting line, and then, "All of a sudden, wings popped out of the turtle shell-long, slow-flapping wings!.... Turkey took off in an explosion of dust." Flabbergasted and humiliated, Rabbit slinks away, suitably chastened for his cockiness. Although the story takes a few pages to pick up a momentum of its own, Tingle (Crossing Bok Chitto), a member of the Choctaw Nation, proves once again that he's a vivid and generous narrator; the mesmerizing cadences of oral storytelling transfer seamlessly to the written word. Schuett's (Watermelon Wishes) almost operatically expressive paintings seem to push at the margins of pages, making them an excellent match for the text's expansive, boisterous voice. Ages 4-8.
