Monster Slayer: A Navajo Folktale

by Vee Browne, Baje Whitethorne (Illustrator)

Two brothers go in search of monsters who haunt their people's village.

Genres: Picture Books, Indigenous, Native American, Fiction

32 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1991

Reviews

[Kelsey]

In this portion of the Navajo folktale about Monster Slayer, Changing Woman's twins defeat a giant that plagues the people. Changing Woman names one of the twins Monster Slayer.

This book would be appropriate as a read-aloud book for children between four and six. Young children will enjoy the traditional tone of the story and the colorful illustrations that reflect Navajo artistic traditions. Children that enjoy adventure stories and folktales may also enjoy this book. It could be used to develop narrative retelling skills with young readers.

[Malcolm]

Required reading at Dilcon elementary school.

[Natalie]

I liked this book-didn't love it-but I liked it. It is a story based on a Navajo Folktale. Twin boys must find a way to defeat the Monster Birds in order to save their people. The pictures are interesting, but not really my style. The story doesn't flow very well in my opinion, but the author does use a lot of references to the culture which make it interesting.

[Judy]

Cluttered. Choppy. That describes the writing and the art. A couple of times I turned back a page to see if I'd inadvertently skipped something.