Rabbit's Snow Dance: A Traditional Iroquois Story

Joseph Bruchac and his son James team up to retell a pourquoi tale that the elder Bruchac has included in two previous collections of Iroquois stories -- as “Rabbit and the Willow Tree” in Iroquois Stories: Heroes and Heroines, Monsters and Magic (Crossing Press, 1985) and as “Rabbit’s Snow Dance” in The Boy Who Lived with the Bears, and Other Iroquois Stories (HarperCollins, 1995). Unfortunately, there’s no note in this edition to cite the original source, as one would expect from such an experienced storyteller. The tale itself deals with Rabbit’s selfish desire for out-of-season snow so he can reach the tasty buds at the top of the willow tree, also explaining how Rabbit loses his long bushy tail in the process. The version created for this picture-book retelling differs significantly from Bruchac’s other two, even the 1995 version that bears the same name. Sentences are shorter here, and there is more patterning and repetition, making it a good choice for a read-aloud. Several animal characters have been added to the story -- those that like the summer snow and those that don’t. But the most notable part of the book is its illustrations, rendered in watercolor, gouache, and ink, which have a classic mid-twentieth-century style that echoes Marc Simont, Clement Hurd, and Leonard Weisgard. kathleen t. horning