Seraphine Yazzie

In this Navajo retelling of a classic fairytale, three little sheep leave home to make their way in the world, discovering along the way that their choice of home has great significance when it comes to evading the clutches of hungry Coyote. The grass-hut and tepee built by the younger two prove insufficient, but the hogan built by the eldest stands strong, and protects its inhabitants.

I found Dibé Yázhí Táa'go Baa Hane' an engaging fairytale, and thought the transformation of the three little pigs into sheep, and the wolf into a coyote, made perfect sense in the Navajo context. Likewise, the three house-types have far more cultural significance to the Navajo than those of the original. Published by Salina Bookshelf, which specializes in Navajo language publications, this story is presented in both Navajo and English.… (más)

Grandmother wears her beautiful velvet skirts in this bilingual English-Navajo picture-book, with each color skirt becoming associated in the narrator's mind with a different task or activity. Wearing yellow when she cooks fry bread, green when she plants corn, squash and watermelon, and purple when she weaves her traditional rugs, she has a different color for every occasion. But whatever she is wearing, and whatever she is doing while wearing it - orange skirt for picking herbs, white skirt for picking pinon nuts, red skirt for herding sheep, brown skirt for making cedar beads, turquoise skirt for going into town, gray skirt for child minding, blue skirt for the Navajo Song and Dance, and black skirt for lighting the fire - she shares "her knowledge, wisdom, and love."

Published by Salina Bookshelf, an Arizona-based press specializing in Navajo material, Beauty Beside Me: Stories of My Grandmother's Skirts / Shimá Sání Bitł'aakał Noot'ishígíí Nizhónígo Nidaashch'ąą'go Baa Hane' offers a poetically repetitive narrative (in English) that emphasizes the beauty and power of Navajo traditions, and of the role of the grandmother in preserving and passing on those traditions. The accompanying CD, with English narration done by the author, and Navajo narration done by Elsie E. Carr, highlights the sing-song quality of the text, in both Navajo - which sounds, to this easterner's ears, to be an incredibly beautiful (and heavily aspirated!) language - and English. The illustrations, done by Navajo artist Baje Whitethorne, Sr., were in a cartoon-like style that didn't greatly appeal to me, although I thought they had a color scheme that suited the text. The second picture-book I have read from this author - Yazzie'sDibé Yázhí Táa'go Baa Hane': The Three Little Sheep offers an interesting Navajo retelling of The Three Little Pigs - this is an engaging book, one I would recommend to readers looking for children's stories with Navajo cultural material, or for children's books in the Navajo language.… (más)