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Description: This collection of Maya
folktales includes myths of the gods, just-so-stories, witch stories, and
animal trickster tales. Although told in the twentieth century, come
of these stories go back to the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the ancient
Maya. ... The two million Maya living in Guatemala and southern Mexico
remember stories heard a thousand years ago. But they also tell
newer tales, borrowed from European and African sources, familiar
folktales like "Search for the Golden Bird, Hop-o'-My Thumb, and
Br'er Rabbit and the Tar Baby. Both old and new are included in this
unusual storybook, which features tales that are favorites of the Maya
themselves. In his introduction, editor John Bierhorst shows how the
tales reflect the real world of the Maya and how the storyteller
transforms this reality. "The world that he or she, creates is
a world of fantasy. Yet is exist everywhere, within and beyond the
territory of the Maya. This is a world unreal as it may be, that
makes it possible to find what is true for each of us.".
The collection is enhanced by line and wash drawings, capturing the
mystery and humor of the May storyteller's art. (adapted from
dust-cover which described the book better than I could)
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Age:
9
- adult (with some stories appropriate to read to younger children too)
Key words: Mayan, Indians of Central
America, legends, myths, folktales |
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