Tricksters: Turtle's Race with the Beaver

So far for this week of trickster Tortoise stories, I was sharing stories from Africa, but to finish up the week, I'll focus on some Native American stories, starting with this lovely book by Joseph Bruchac and his son James Bruchac: Turtle's Race with the Beaver: A Traditional Seneca Story.

I devoted a week at this blog to Joseph Bruchac; you can find all those posts here: Week 69 - Joseph Bruchac.

The illustrations are by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey; you can find out more about their method of collaboration here. I don't want to give away the trick that the turtle uses to win the race, but she does in fact win!

You can find more turtle stories in Bruchac's other books. For example, his book of Iroquois Stories contains three stories about the turtle; you will find this story about turtle racing beaver, and also turtle's race with the bear (the race-of-substitutes, just like in the African tradition), and turtle making war on men, which is is one of my favorite turtle stories. You can also find a version of that story in Bruchac's The Boy Who Lived With the Bears and Other Iroquois Stories with illustrations by Murv Jacob: Turtle Makes War on Man.

So much to enjoy! And I'll be back tomorrow with some more Native American turtle storytelling.

Turtle's Race with the Beaver:

A Traditional Seneca Story

by Joseph Bruchac and James Bruchac