THE MUD PONY by Caron Lee Cohen and Shonto Begay

 


Cohen, C.L. & Begay, S. (1988). THE MUD PONY.  (READING RAINBOW, 73.): A

                        TRADITIONAL SKIDI PAWNEE TALE. Scholastic.

 

There was a  poor boy in an Indian camp. He didn't have a pony and he wanted one like the other boys, so he made one out of clay and then took care of it as if it were a real pony. One day  he is out with his clay pony and away from camp.  The camp is ready to leave to go hunt buffalo.  His parents look but can’t find the boy.  The camp leaves without him.  When he gets back to camp, he is upset because he doesn't know how to find them. The clay pony comes to life and leads him to his people. The war chief sees him and says there is another tribe attacking them, so they need the boy and his pony to help fight. The pony, who is part of Mother Earth, tells the boy to cover himself in dirt because arrows can never pierce the earth.  He does what the pony says, and they defeat their enemy. He later becomes a chief like the pony had said. The pony told him in a dream she must return to Mother Earth. After a rain, the chief goes out to check on his pony and it had returned to earth.

The most obvious cultural markers in the book are the illustrations.  Illustrator Shonto Begay was born in a hogan in Shonto, Arizona. Her parents are traditional Navajo people. Her father is a medicine man, and her mother weaves rugs and herds sheep.  She does the artwork for the book in soft pastel shades and focuses on constellations, which is one of the culture’s characteristics. The boy is drawn with dark hair and a loincloth; at the book’s end, he is older and has two eagle feathers in his hair. 

The author references the Skidi Pawnee’s nomadic culture.  They roamed the North American prairie hunting buffalo moving with the buffalo herds and living in tepees. 

 

Publisher’s Weekly:  “Cohen retells this story with grace; Begay, a Native American artist, provides evocative paintings that derive strength and impact from the suggestion of action rather than fully detailed scenes.” Ages 5-8. (September)

Kirkus “In his first book, Begay (who is a Navaho) has splendidly illustrated this moving, multileveled hero tale. Soft earth tones touched with the sky's many blues and dappled with the white of clay, or light, reflect the stem beauty of the Southwest, the luminous world of the imagination, and the vigorous action of horse and rider. An excellent addition to folklore collections.”

 

Other books by Shonto Begay:

 THE WATER LADY: HOW DARLENE ARVISO HELPS A THIRSTY NAVAJO NATION ISBN  978-0525645009

MY DESERT ISBN 978-0673805751

OLDER SISTER, FLY HOME ISBN 978-1580897020

 

Other sources:

Lucas, J. (2013, October 30). “WHEN I HEARD THE LEARN’D ASTRONOMER…. “ “When

I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer…”.  Retrieved March 15, 2022, https://snoephlaik.blogspot.com/

 

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