The annual seasons and rhythms of the desert are a dance of clouds, wind, rain, and flood—water in it roles from bringer of food to destroyer of life. The critical importance of weather and climate to native desert peoples is reflected with grace and power in this personal collection of poems, the first written creative work by an individual in O’odham and a landmark in Native American literature.
Tells how several animals failed in their efforts to steal fire for the Hopis, but eventually Vulture succeeded.
A mouse couple, in search of the mightiest husband for their daughter, approach the sun, the clouds, the wind, and a butte, before the unexpected victor finally appears.
A retelling of the Indian legend which explains why the Navajo always plant a scattering of zinnia flowers among their food crops and respect every spider.
La Llorona (yoh-RROH-nah), now available for the first time in a full-color paperback, is the ghost story to end all ghost stories and truly the most popular cuento of Hispanic America. This story of the weeping woman appears at first to be only a frightening tale filled with mysterious events which cause children to sit wide-eyed. Yet it’s the simple, universal wisdom at the core of the story that finally works its magic into their hearts. Joe Hayes is best known for his bilingual tellings of stories from the American Southwest. La Llorona is one of his favorite stories.
A brief fictional recounting of legendary epidemics that struck the American Southwest–the smallpox epidemics of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the influenza epidemic during World War I–which ravaged many rural communities throughout the West. Includes author’s notes about the characters.
When Manuela’s sheep are stolen, she has to go to Alice Nizzy Nazzy’s talking road-runner-footed adobe house and try to get the witch to give the flock back, in a Southwestern version of the Baba Yaga story.
While visiting their mother’s ranch, two brothers who constantly try to best each other swap tall tales about big winds and are surprised by the fiercest wind they have ever seen.
Retells in verse the tale of the extraordinary cowboy who was raised by coyotes, married Sluefoot Sue, and rode the wild rapscallion mustang stallion named Widowmaker.
Young Tonito thinks and dreams of soccer all the time, even as he does homework, eats dinner, and spends time with his family.