The Fish Skin

This retelling of a folktale from the Cree tribe--the debut of both collaborators--explains how rain finally returned to the ``parched and dry'' land, after Cloud was driven away in favor of Grandfather Sun's warmth and light. When people and animals alike begin to suffer from the sun's unshaded rays, a boy goes in search of the great spirit on the other side of the forest called Wisahkecahk. He is given a magical fish skin, which--in an odd and unexplained twist--he climbs inside, and like a giant fish himself is able to bring water back to the land from the lake, which in turn becomes rain. Written with the vibrancy of folk literature in the oral tradition, Olivero's forthright prose is nicely suited for reading aloud. The visual presentation, however, is too amateurish and stiff to advance the text; many of Morrisseau's wildlife pictures, bright to the point of garishness, cramp the pages. Ages 4-7. (Apr.)