Tomie's favorite legends are now my favorites, too!

When an author has earned both a Newbery and a Caldecott honor, not to mention several other children's literature awards, you know whatever you find is going to be great (list of all DePaola's awards: http://www.tomie.com/about_tomie/recognitions.html). Tomie DePaola,  author and illustrator of Strega Nona and many other beautiful and touching books, brings together four folktales from four different cultures in this beautifully illustrated collection.  Big Book of Favorite Legends features stories from Texas, Wyoming, Mexico, and Italy.
First,  DePaolo shares "The Legend of the Bluebonnet" from the Comanche people indigenous to Texas. The story goes that a little girl's sacrifice for her people led to the beautiful state flower of Texas, the Bluebonnet. DePaolo uses somewhat simple paintings, but fills the page with color in each story. Gradations of color to show the night sky or a landscape covered with flowers, show DePaolo's illustration prowess.

Little Gopher painting the sky for his people, p.60-61

The second story, "The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush" comes from legends of the native people of Wyoming. In this legend, a young boy finds his role in his tribe, not as a brave like the other boys, but as an artist who records the peoples' history and visions with his paintings. Throughout the story, he longs to capture the beauty of the setting sun for his people. The ancestral spirits provide him with the paints he seeks in the form of brightly colored flowers. These flowers became known as Indian Paintbrushes because of this legend. The paintings in this story are particularly beautiful. Today, the Indian Paintbrush is Wyoming's state flower. I had never heard of this flower, so I looked it up. Turns out they do look a lot like vibrant paintbrushes! (See this website for more information and photos: http://www.intangibility.com/inw/Wildflowers/Indian-Paintbrush.html)

The first two stories in this book are excellent for talking about native people of the United States, state flowers, and how legends show the way people interpret the world.

The last two stories in the collection come from outside the United states.  "The Legend of the Poinsettia" is a Christmas tale from Mexico about how a young girl's humble gift of weeds to the Baby Jesus in the manger turns out to be a beautiful bloom of vibrant red flowers. This story would need be carefully used, so as not to overstep cultural boundaries, but provides a beautiful message about gifts. If appropriate, could lead to a better understanding of why poinsettas are used at Christmas and in a larger discussion on Mexican Christmas  traditions, perhaps in a cross-cultural study of holidays.
The final story, "Tony's Bread" is a story from Italy about how panettone, the Italian dessert bread, came to be. In the story, Tony is an excellent baker, but an overprotective father who believes no one is good enough for his daughter. A wealthy nobleman comes up with a plan that allows him to marry Tony's daughter and make Tony a national baking hero. The  illustrations in this story lean away from beautiful and toward cutesy, but are still very interesting to look at while reading.

My only wish is that there were more legends in this collection!