The Legend of Lightning & Thunder

Gr 2–4—According to the foreword, this picture-book retelling of an Inuit myth is the product of an initiative to have Inuit elders share and record their own stories. The hoped-for results were to increase exposure for the traditional tales and to have new writers creating their own retellings. A hungry, orphaned brother and sister are looking for support in a world in which lying and stealing do not exist. After they are turned away from a celebration, however, they are forced to steal, and instead find a caribou skin, among other items, that they fashion into instruments and playthings. The world seems to react to their playing, creating waves in the sky as they bang on the skin, and the activity obviously takes their minds off their hunger and loneliness for a little while. When they hear members of the camp coming, however, they realize that they have to escape and run up into the sky to hide. Legend states that they remain there to this day in the form of lightning and thunder. The tale itself is well and simply told, and readers will be able to use context clues and illustrations to follow the story and identify important topics. The illustrations feature heavily in the book, setting off blocks of text with images of wide open spaces, muted colors, and natural scenes, and a focus on people-the siblings' forlorn expressions are very effective and will make readers root for these children.This title is ideal for reading aloud with a class or storytime group, and it lends itself well to discussions of moral ideas such as stealing and exclusion.—Heather Talty, formerly at Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, New York City