The Coyote Columbus Story

A Coyote Columbus Story

by Thomas King & William Kent Monkman

Description:

Publisher description (House of Anansi Press)
A retelling of the Christopher Columbus story from an Indigenous point of view turns this tale on its ear!

Coyote, the trickster, creates the world and all the creatures in it. She is able to control all events to her advantage until a funny-looking red-haired man named Columbus changes her plans. He is unimpressed by the wealth of moose, turtles and beavers in Coyote’s land. Instead he is interested in the human beings he can take to sell in Spain.

Thomas King uses a bag of literary tricks to shatter the stereotypes surrounding Columbus’s voyages. In doing so, he invites children to laugh with him at the crazy antics of Coyote, who unwittingly allows Columbus to bring about the downfall of her human friends. And he makes the point that history is influenced by the culture of the reporter.

Author and Illustrator biographies (House of Anansi Press): 
Thomas King has written several highly acclaimed children’s books. A Coyote Solstice Tale, illustrated by Gary Clement, won the American Indian Library Association Youth Literature Award for Best Picture Book and A Coyote Columbus Story, illustrated by William Kent Monkman, was a Governor General’s Award finalist. He was a Professor of English at the University of Guelph for many years, where he taught Native Literature and Creative Writing. He won the Governor General’s Award for his adult novel, The Back of the Turtle, and he has been nominated for the Commonwealth Writers Prize.

William Kent Monkman is a filmmaker and visual artists whose paintings have been shown in galleries across North America. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Resource format: Picturebook

Age recommendation: Grades 7 - 12

Keywords: literacy tricks, trickster retelling, trickster story, historical fiction, creation, consumerism, play, work, beaver, moose, turtle, humans, tricks, friends, Christopher Columbus, relations, monetization, slave trade, balance, Jaques Cartier, trust, relationship

Year of publication: 2007

Publisher information: Groundwood Books

Teaching and Learning Ideas

Our team collaborated with new teachers, alumni of the Werklund School of Education’s Bachelor of Education program, to create teaching and learning plans for texts in this website. With audiences ranging from Pre-Kindergarten to Post-Secondary, lesson plans across this resource address a wide range of school subject areas, inclusive approaches, and Indigenous education topics, such as the revitalization of Indigenous languages. As this website was designed with Undergraduate Programs in Education instructors, as well as teachers in mind, connections to UPE courses have been flagged on each lesson plan. These lessons are intended as a starting place for educators, to help you envision ways in which you might bring Indigenous literatures, as well as ways of knowing, being, and doing, into your teaching contexts. Please adapt, use, and share these lessons in ways that are generative for your teaching practice. We offer our sincere thanks to the dozens of new teachers who gifted us with these creative ideas!

A Coyote Columbus Story Grades 10-12 Lesson