Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “How the Animals Got Their Colors: Animal Myths from Around the World” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

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

Michael Rosen,

John Clementson (Illustrator)

3.91 · Rating details · 23 ratings · 6 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.

Get A Copy

Hardcover, 48 pages

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

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about How the Animals Got Their Colors, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about How the Animals Got Their Colors

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

Showing 1-46

Average rating 3.91 ·

Rating details

· 23 ratings · 6 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of How the Animals Got Their Colors: Animal Myths from Around the World

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 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.
...more

flag Like · see review

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

flag Like · see review

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 ...more

flag Like · see review

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 ...more

flag Like · see review

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

flag Like · see review

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

flag Like · see review

Jayden Mahoney rated it really liked it
Jun 13, 2017

Oznasia rated it liked it
Dec 25, 2014

Savannah rated it it was amazing
Jan 16, 2011

Amber rated it really liked it
Feb 04, 2012

Bright184 rated it it was amazing
Mar 23, 2016

Kristen rated it really liked it
Jun 25, 2013

Erin Cullen rated it really liked it
Sep 26, 2016

Karen Hoehne rated it liked it
Oct 18, 2017

Angie rated it it was amazing
Sep 21, 2008

Christine Turner rated it it was amazing
Mar 14, 2009

Dana rated it it was amazing
Oct 14, 2018

Joan rated it liked it
Apr 14, 2010

Amber Spencer rated it it was ok
Jan 13, 2010

Shannon rated it liked it
Mar 21, 2012

Jessica rated it it was amazing
Jan 04, 2017

Dakota rated it it was ok
Jul 25, 2017

Ayembee rated it really liked it
May 24, 2015

Jasper rated it it was amazing
Aug 30, 2011

Chacha Centeno rated it really liked it
Nov 23, 2014

Atziri marked it as to-read
Oct 15, 2011

Katie Alexander added it
Oct 21, 2011

Anna marked it as to-read
Oct 05, 2013

Margaret marked it as to-read
Jun 16, 2014

Eve Leonard added it
Nov 23, 2014

Tammy marked it as to-read
May 19, 2016

Laura Dunn marked it as to-read
Jun 12, 2016

Erika added it
Jul 08, 2016

Terra added it
Jul 25, 2016

Gina WenQi marked it as to-read
Sep 05, 2016

Sarah Maxfield marked it as to-read
Sep 14, 2016

T.N.Swarnalatha marked it as to-read
Oct 15, 2016

Olena Tkach marked it as to-read
Nov 26, 2016

Mäřïám Sāľėh marked it as to-read
Jan 24, 2017

Erika marked it as to-read
May 05, 2017

Anto Cahyadi marked it as to-read
Sep 09, 2017

Sophie Crane marked it as to-read
Oct 23, 2017

Pascoag Public Library added it
Dec 29, 2017

Barbara Smith marked it as to-read
Feb 06, 2018

Ben James marked it as to-read
Apr 25, 2018

Kendall marked it as to-read
May 10, 2018

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend It | Stats | Recent Status Updates

Genres

Childrens > Picture Books

3 users

Childrens

2 users

See top shelves…

About Michael Rosen

Michael Rosen

248 followers

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.