Rainbow Bird Book Review

Rainbow Bird: An Aboriginal Folktale from Northern Australia by Eric Maddern is a pourquoi (por-kwa) tale about how humans attained fire. Pourquoi is a french word which means why? They are stories which answer questions that young children may ask such as, "why does a leopard have spots?" Rainbow Bird is a picture book with beautiful water color illustrations on every page by Adrienn Kennaway. In this story a mean crocodile is the only living being who possesses fire. He refuses to share it with any of the other animals or humans, claiming that he is the, "boss of fire". Bird Woman seizes the opportunity to snatch one of the crocodile's fire sticks. She flies through the forest implanting the magical fire into the trees so that humans can use dry branches to rub together and start fires. After placing the fire stick in her tail, Bird Woman becomes a beautiful rainbow bird. With her new found power she banishes Crocodile Man to live in the swamp forever. Actually, this story answers two questions. One, how did humans come to have fire? and two, how did crocodiles come to live in swamps? This book would work great for a read aloud. The story is brief enough and the pictures are large and colorful. After reading students the tale they can create their own pourquoi story. Simply have the students think of a why question, then write a story to answer the question. You can also incorporate art by having the students create their own rainbow birds using colorful feathers from a craft store. In addition, this book is a great compliment to social studies. You can devise a whole plan about Australia's Aboriginal tribe.
The author, Eric Maddern, has wrote many other pourqui tales as well. His works would be very useful when introducing students to folktales and pourqui stories. Also, most of his tales are derived from different countries and would be a great addition to social studies lessons on different cultures and beliefs.