Synopsis
Two young children learn from experience the importance of staying in contact with the source of creation.
Children's Literature
This is an unusual book in more ways than one. The Hopi tale of the hummingbird and two children is told in a voice as close as possible to that of the oral teller, without watering down some of its harsher aspects to soothe politically correct adult sensibilities. The complexity of that transition from spoken to written word is further acknowledged by giving the storyteller prominence with the author and illustrator. Unconventional, but then convention has not always been kind to the traditional people whose stories we have tapped for the children's market. Lacapa's stunning interpretive art eases the transition to print, and the story carries its own fascination.