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How the Animals Got Their Colors: Animal Myths from Around the World

Michael Rosen,

John Clementson (Illustrator)

3.80 · Rating details · 25 ratings · 8 reviews

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.

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Hardcover, 48 pages

Published April 1st 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P (first published April 1991)

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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

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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 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 brolga bird gray, where did the coyote get his yellow eyes, why peacock’s markings resemble teardrops, and so on.
Professional Recommendation/Review #1:
Carolyn Phelan (Booklist)
Rosen retells nine animal tales from around the world, including an African story explaining how the leopard got its spots, a native American pourquoi tale of how the coyote got its yellow eyes, and a Greek myth explaining why frogs are green on their backs and white on their bellies. Vibrant paper-cut collages fill the pages with diverse patterns and contrasting colors. Despite their cluttered appearance, many of the illustrations have a vitality of line and a rhythmic repetition of form that make them effective. Appended notes on the tales include information about the people who told them and the animals themselves. In a pleasing decorative touch, each description in the notes is accompanied by a striking depiction of the animal, drawn from the illustrations but isolated on the blue-bordered, white pages. First published in England, this is a possible source for storytelling or reading aloud.
Professional Recommendation/Review #2:
Kirkus
Nine pourquoi stories drawn from named sources such as Bulfinch, The Journal of American Folklore, and the work of various anthropologists. Rosen’s retellings are spare but fairly lively; Clementson’s illustrations, vibrant with sharp- edged areas of joyful intense color that appear to have been cut with scissors, dramatically frame the stark white areas of the text. Concluding notes about cultural sources and the animals themselves are addressed to young readers; it’s too bad that the credited sources are not also mentioned. An outstandingly handsome, eye- catching book- one that’s likely to be especially useful to storytellers and teachers.
Response to Two Professional Reviews: Both reviewers mainly talk about how well done and bright the illustrations are. However, I do agree with the first review that the pictures are a bit clustered and overwhelming for the eyes of a young child. By making the pictures less overwhelming, they would be more effective for young learners.
Evaluation of Literary Elements: This book is extremely colorful with lots of bright colors and animals but has a lot going on. This could distract the readers attention and draw their eye away from the story. The style of the book is in rhythmic repetitions, which makes catchy and more fun for readers. The language is written in a simple, accessible way. However, they book has a lot of words per page so it might be tricky for some readers to follow along. The main conflict in each story is explaining to the reader how an animal got a specific characteristic.
Consideration of Instructional Application: This book can be used to talk to first through fourth graders about myths and folklore. After reading the story, students will create their own animal folklore. Students could pick any animal of their choice (one not from the book) and use construction paper to create their animal. Next, students will pick a trait (color, tail, etc) from their animal depending on their grade level, they will write anywhere from a short paragraph to an essay explaining how their animal that trait.
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Mar 05, 2015 Emma Hoyer rated it really liked it

Shelves: children-s-literature

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, 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, yellow eyes. The story starts with some geese and the coyote throwing their eyes in the river and then jumping in the river, only to have the eyes jump back to their proper place. This is very weird to think about, but that is the nature of traditional literature. If this book were going to be used in a classroom, a conversation would need to be had about the role of traditional literature in various cultures, as well as what the oral tradition was and how it functioned in those same cultures. There’s some information about those elements in the back of this book, in reference to each story and animal. That’s a helpful resource, but talking about this with students would probably need some more examples and resources to be effective.

My favorite story, in terms of content, was the story of the peacock. This is one of the stories that comes with a lesson, or a moral. The peacock is a very proud bird, and he ends up making a mistake that he regrets for the rest of his life, due to his pride and selfishness. The explanation for why his feathers are so brilliant does not come until the end, much like the rest of the stories, but the reason has to do with tears.

The story of the frog is unique in the fact that it asks a question at the end of the story. Instead of explicitly telling the audience what happened to the country people, it asks what the audience thinks they got turned into. The story itself is a little sad, full of selfishness, once again. However, the outcome serves justice to those who are selfish.

Overall, this is a very nice collection of traditional literature from a variety of cultures. I would recommend this for use in a classroom with students in 3rd grade or above. Some students in younger grades may be able to handle stories like this, but as a whole, classrooms below 3rd grade would probably not work well with this book. ...more

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Feb 19, 2020 Denim Eakin rated it liked it

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

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Dec 06, 2016 Chelsea Keopraseurt added it

How the Animals Got Their Colors is a collection of nine folktales from every continent. Each tale tells the origin story of how a specific animal came to be; why they act how they act, why they are the color they are, why they have stripes, etc. Every story is different, focusing on specific animal (a frog, a coyote, a fish, etc.). The story is vividly retold by Michael Rosen, with stunning and colorful illustrations by John Clemenston. At the end of the book, there is a section that explains t ...more

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Feb 21, 2016 Kennedy rated it really liked it

Shelves: children-s-lit

"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

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Sep 13, 2016 Kenzie Thompson rated it really liked it

Shelves: rdng-350

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

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Jun 09, 2012 Fjóla rated it liked it

Shelves: children-s-books, picture-books

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

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About Michael Rosen

Michael Rosen

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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