Tricksters. Mother Fox and Mr. Coyote

Continuing with this week of stories about coyote, today's book is a lovely bilingual Spanish-English story about how a mother fox uses the coyote's greed against him: Mother Fox and Mr. Coyote / Mamá Zorra y Don Coyote.

The author, Victor Villaseñor, grew up hearing this story, and you can find out more about his life and work as a writer at Wikipedia, and the Internet Archive has several more of his books, including another bilingual children's book: The Stranger and the Red Rooster / El forastero y el gallo rojo.

The beautiful illustrations for the story of the mother fox and the coyote are by Felipe Ugalde Alcántara. Here you can see the moment when the coyote confronts the foxes, and also how the English and Spanish versions are presented together side by side:

Notice the moon there in the sky? The moon plays an important role in the story, and there's an aetiology here too: instead of a man in the moon or a rabbit in the moon (as in other traditions), this story explains why you can see a fox in the moon!

So, if you enjoy fox stories and/or if you enjoy seeing the coyote being outwitted, this a delightful book to read, in Spanish or in English or both!

Mother Fox and Mr. Coyote / Mamá Zorra y Don Coyote

by Victor Villaseñor