How Chipmunk Got His Stripes
by Joseph & James Bruchac, Jose Aruego, & Ariane Dewey
Description:
Publisher's description (Puffin Books, 2003):
In this retelling of a Native American pourquoi tale, Brown Squirrel challenges prideful Bear to keep the sun from rising.
Bear brags that he can do anything-even stop the sun from rising. Brown Squirrel doesn't believe him, so the two wait all night to see if the sun will rise. Sure enough, the sky reddens and the sun appears. Brown Squirrel is so happy to be right that he teases Bear. What happens when a little brown squirrel teases a big black bear? Brown Squirrel gets stripes and is called chipmunk from that day forward . . . Joseph and James Bruchac join forces to create this buoyant picturebook, based on a Native American folktale.
Creator Biographies (Penguin Randomhouse):
Joseph Bruchac is a member of the Nulhegan Abenaki Nation. Joseph Bruchac is a highly acclaimed children’s book author, poet, novelist, and storyteller, as well as a scholar of Native American culture. He is the coauthor of the bestselling Keepers of the Earth series with Michael Caduto. Bruchac's poems, articles, and stories have appeared in hundreds of publications from Akwesasne Notes and American Poetry Review to National Geographic and Parabola. He has authored many books for adults and children including Code Talker: A Novel about the Navajo Marines of World War Two, Skeleton Man, and The Heart of a Chief.
Jose Aruego was a lawyer before becoming a children’s book illustrator. A native of the Philippines, he moved to New York City in 1956 to study at Parsons School of Design. His cartoons were published in the New Yorker and the Saturday Evening Post, and his illustrations can be seen in Five Little Ducks by Raffi, as well as in the 82 children's books he wrote himself. He died in 2012.
Ariane Dewey, with her illustrating partner Jose Aruego, has illustrated over 60 children’s books. Originally from Chicago, she now lives in New York City. Her art can be seen in Five Little Ducks by Raffi.
Resource format: Picturebook
Age recommendation: Kindergarten - Grade 3
Keywords: folklore, stories, animals, lessons, porquoi stories, bear, squirrel, chipmunk, animal stories, pride, teasing, sun rising, mythology, creation stories, origin stories, retelling, consequences
Year of publication: 2003
Publisher information: Puffin 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!