Many years ago, when the People traveled the Plains, there lived a boy who was smaller than the rest of the children in the tribe. This boy, Little Gopher, had a special gift in art. The wise shaman promised Little Gopher that he would be remembered for a reason other than being a warrior. A few years later, he went to the hills and a Dream-Vision came to him. An Indian maiden and old grandfather came from the clouds and showed him animal skin, brushes, and paints. They encouraged him to gather these materials and paint a picture that is pure as the colors in the evening sky. He collected the materials and began to paint pictures. However, as hard as he tried, he could not find the colors of the sunset. He went to the hill each evening and tried to understand how to make the colors. He never gave up, and in the meantime he painted stories of the People. One night, a voice called out to him. Since he had been faithful to the People, tomorrow evening on the hill he would find the paints he needed. As promised, the paints were there and Little Gopher was able to paint the colors of the sunset. He left the brushes on the hill, and the next day the hill was full of color, where the brushes had taken root in the earth and multiplied into beautifully-colored plants. Little Gopher would now be called He-Who-Brought-the-Sunset-to-the-Earth.
Tomie dePaola’s books are very easily recognized. In my field placement classroom, my SBTE has an entire Tomie dePadola section. I could possibly use this book as an introduction to a unit on authors. Since dePaola also illustrates his books, it would be interested to compare this book with some of his others. Other notable children’s books by dePaola are The Quilt Story, Adelita A Mexican Cinderella Story, Legend of the Bluebonnet, and The Art Lesson. Some of these are also folktales, while others are stories of his childhood. I think that it is important for children to recognize that authors have different writing styles, and in this case, illustration techniques. I could group the students and give them each a different Tomie dePaola book. Each group could record the characters, main idea, theme, motif, and other notable things about the book. As a class, we could come together and talk about the books. As an addition, I could even assign the students to do a research project on their favorite authors/books.
