First Camp Read-A-Lot book: Trickster, Native American Tales a Graphic Collection

As I have for the past two summers, I will be serving as a “counselor” at Camp-Read-a-Lot, a summer reading program for teachers and media specialists. It is sponsored in the Twin Cities by MELSA and Metronet. I will be working with folks interested in materials for 6th-8th graders. We will meet to discuss our books on Wednesday, August 10 at Como Lakeside Pavilion in St. Paul. The special guest this year is Avi! Find out more Here.

I am excited to begin my Camp RAL reading with a book of folktales:

Trickster: Native American Tales a Graphic Collection. Compiled by Matt Dembicki, 2010.

Matt Dembicki was inspired to put together a collection of Native American trickster tales in comic form after delighting in trickster stories in a library book and realizing that he didn’t know much about Native American culture. Therefore, he started the project that became Trickster: twenty one tales each written by Native American storytellers and illustrated by artists of their choosing. Readers will be rewarded by a wide spectrum of stories with different graphic styles from wacky to realistic to otherworldly. They will meet the Trickster character in many forms: Coyote, Rabbit, Raven and even human (shaped!). These tricky ones fool and get the better of others and are tricked themselves. Their stories are contributed by storytellers from Choctaw, Pueblo, Cherokee and many more Native American Nations and are in diverse settings from Alaska to Hawaii. Some of the tales have a mysterious and dreamlike feel, some are creepy and others are funny and earthy. The Pourquoi stories tell us how the stars got in the sky, why the buzzards head is bald, why Rabbit has a little fluffy tail, and more. Dembicki states that he hopes that Trickster will help readers to learn about North America’s original inhabitants. That door has certainly been opened, and Trickster is getting critical attention as well. It is now on the short list for the 2011 Eisner award Comic-Con 2011  and was a nominee for Children’s Book Council’s 2011 Teen Choice Book of the Year. Teen Reads

Matt Dembicki's Blog