Today's book from Joseph Bruchac (this is a week devoted to his books) is a treasure trove of stories; you will find over 30 stories here in fact! Iroquois Stories: Heroes and Heroines, Monsters and Magic:
What is most exciting for me here in terms of trickster traditions are the animal stories, some of which feature trickster animals. One of my favorite Rabbit stories is here for example: Rabbit and the Fox. In addition to being cunning, this trickster rabbit is also a shapeshifter (danger! danger! the fox is such a fool for even trying to chase him), plus this rabbit has other magical powers, like being able to make his moccasins walk on their own and mislead the fox, at least temporarily.
The illustrations are by Daniel Burgevin, and here is his illustration for Rabbit and Fox. Look closely and you'll see the Rabbit int he bushes watching Fox make a fool of himself by eating that stump!
When researching Dan Burgevin, I learned that he does art for Acorn Designs... gorgeous stuff! So I ordered his tortoise journal: it will be my official trickster journal! (Tortoise being my favorite trickster these days!)
Six of the stories told here also appear in a children's book, The Boy Who Lived with the Bears, and Other Iroquois Stories, which has beautiful illustrations by Murv Jacob.
You can read more about Murv Jacob at Wikipedia; he died just a few years ago, in 2019. He is best known for his illustrations of books about Cherokee traditions.
Here is his illustration for Rabbit and Fox; there go the moccasins on their own!
So both of these two books are a delight to read, and both are just a click away at the Internet Archive!
by Joseph Bruchac
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