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How the Animals Got Their Colors: Animal Myths from Around the World
by
How did the tiger get its stripes? Why does the coyote have yellow eyes? In simple, accessible language, Rosen retells folktales and myths from around the world describing wondrous transformations that explain how the animals got their colors. Full-color illustrations.
Hardcover, 48 pages
Published
April 1st 1992
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P
(first published April 1991)
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Start your review of How the Animals Got Their Colors: Animal Myths from Around the World

Dec 29, 2017
J
rated it
it was ok
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
z-format-book,
mythoi-legends-fables
This was an interesting collection of animal tales collected from around the world that explains how particular animals came to look the way they are. As such it is a mixture of cultures with no actual true focus.
Unfortunately there is no real organization to the stories nor is there at first glance any actual way to tell where the stories come from. Fortunately for readers who do want to know there is a small collection at the back that does provide more cultural information even if it just i ...more
Unfortunately there is no real organization to the stories nor is there at first glance any actual way to tell where the stories come from. Fortunately for readers who do want to know there is a small collection at the back that does provide more cultural information even if it just i ...more

Oct 14, 2015
Kristin Crockett
added it
Title: How The Animals Got Their Colors
Author: Michael Rosen
Illustrator: John Clementson
Genre: Myth, Folklore
Themes: Animals, Uniqueness
Opening line/sentence:
Coyote is a wild dog. He thinks he’s so cunning, so clever.
Brief Book Summary: Using old myths and folktale stories passed down from long ago, Rosen explains how eight different animals got their colors and explains why they are the way they are today. He talks about how has the leopard always had black spots, what turned the dancing brolg ...more
Author: Michael Rosen
Illustrator: John Clementson
Genre: Myth, Folklore
Themes: Animals, Uniqueness
Opening line/sentence:
Coyote is a wild dog. He thinks he’s so cunning, so clever.
Brief Book Summary: Using old myths and folktale stories passed down from long ago, Rosen explains how eight different animals got their colors and explains why they are the way they are today. He talks about how has the leopard always had black spots, what turned the dancing brolg ...more

Literature Requirement: **Traditional Literature #1**
How the Animals Got Their Colors is a collection of short tales about various animals. Among the animals that are included are the coyote, the frog, the peacock, and others. Each story is unique, and there are a couple stories that have lessons within them. It’s clear that these tales came from oral tradition, and some are a little odd in the perspective of a modern audience. For example, the first story is about how the coyote got his angry, ...more
How the Animals Got Their Colors is a collection of short tales about various animals. Among the animals that are included are the coyote, the frog, the peacock, and others. Each story is unique, and there are a couple stories that have lessons within them. It’s clear that these tales came from oral tradition, and some are a little odd in the perspective of a modern audience. For example, the first story is about how the coyote got his angry, ...more

Genre: Traditional Literature- Myth/Folktale
Awards: None
Audience: Grades 3-5
- The story is a collection of different animals and the different ways that they got their colors, the main characters are the Coyote, flying fish, frog, tiger, brolga, leopard, peacock, crane and they are all described in a creative way that sets the scene of how they are going to get their colors/markings.
- I couldn't exactly compare them to any other versions, I had never heard of this book before, the Tiger story w ...more
Awards: None
Audience: Grades 3-5
- The story is a collection of different animals and the different ways that they got their colors, the main characters are the Coyote, flying fish, frog, tiger, brolga, leopard, peacock, crane and they are all described in a creative way that sets the scene of how they are going to get their colors/markings.
- I couldn't exactly compare them to any other versions, I had never heard of this book before, the Tiger story w ...more

"How the Animals Got Their Colors" is a group of different folk tales from different cultures that explain why certain animals look the way they do. The stories come from cultures all over the world; Central American, African, Indian, Asian, etc. This is an interesting book because it talks about how different cultures view things, and how that blends in with their story telling. The illustrations are also interesting. They are done in a very collage, cut and paste style. I feel like this book w
...more

How the Animals Got Their Colors is a collection of myths from around the world. It goes through animals like the coyote, the flying fish, the frog, the tiger, the brolga, the leopard, the peacock, and the crane and explains how and why they look like they do. The last story is a myth called How the Animals Got Their Colors and talks about how the sun made woman and man and painted all the animals. Some stories are Native American, some Indian, some Chinese, and some Greek.
I have always thought ...more
I have always thought ...more

I remember reading myths of this sort when I was a child and I'll have to say that in comparison I found these only average. I did like the tale about the Peacock and the one about the Tiger, but I couldn't find any rhyme or reason to some of the other ones. I wonder if some of them just don't translate well. See for instance the one about the Crane: I read it three times and I still didn't understand it.
This said, the stories held high interest for my six year old, and I made sure not to share ...more
This said, the stories held high interest for my six year old, and I made sure not to share ...more
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Michael Rosen, a recent British Children’s Laureate, has written many acclaimed books for children, including WE'RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, and I’M NUMBER ONE and THIS IS OUR HOUSE, both illustrated by Bob Graham. Michael Rosen lives in London.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information. ...more
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information. ...more
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