Service Alert
Website maintenance April 23 10pm ET
On Wednesday April 23 at 10pm ET the CELA website will be unavailable for about 15 minutes for planned maintenance.
On Wednesday April 23 at 10pm ET the CELA website will be unavailable for about 15 minutes for planned maintenance.
Showing 1 - 20 of 29 items
By Frank Waters. 1977
Thirty Hopi elders cooperated with the author to describe the Hopis' world view. They shared their legends and rituals and…
the beliefs underlying them. The result is a philosophy much different from those of European culturesBy Terri Cohlene. 1990
Retells the legend of Clamshell Boy, who rescues a captured group of children from the dreaded wild woman Basket Woman.…
Includes information on the customs and lifestyles of the Makah Indians. For grades 3-6By Joseph M. Marshall, Joseph Marshall. 2001
Twelve traditional tales and allegories told by Lakota elders to impart tribal wisdom on ethics and character. Each story illustrates…
a virtue such as humility, respect, sacrifice, and honesty. In "The Story of the Thunders" a jealous first wife tells how foolishness can lead to wisdom. 2001By Tim Tingle, Norma Howard. 2003
Twelve traditional stories reflecting the history and beliefs of the Choctaw nation spanning almost two centuries of tribal life. "Saltypie"…
is Tingle's own story of his family's close bond with his blind grandmother. For grades 6-9 and older readers. 2003By Jane Louise Curry, James Watts. 1999
Collection of twenty-seven tales with an introduction to Algonquian Indian culture; describes variations among the group's numerous tribes, which are…
found in the eastern United States and Canada. The title story recounts how a turtle's back became the Earth's foundation after a great flood. For grades 4-7. 1999By Clifford E. Trafzer. 1996
Thirty short stories by Native Americans from different tribal groups. Original tales created from personal experiences, like being sent to…
a government boarding school or moving away from the reservation. Other selections are based on traditional themes involving ghosts or people especially attuned to natureBy Gretchen Mayo, Gretchen Will Mayo. 1989
By Charles A. Eastman, Charles Alexander Eastman, Elaine Goodale Eastman. 1990
Charles Eastman, who is a mixed-blood Sioux, and his wife, Elaine, have collected these twenty-seven tales that offer a sampling…
of his tribe's values. Narrated by Smoky Day, an old story-teller, and representing generations of Plains society, these folktales suggest "the essence of what it is to be a decent, thoughtful, and respectable human being."By Charles A Eastman, Charles Alexander Eastman, Charles Alexander. 2003
In The Soul of the Indian, Eastman brings to life the rich spirituality and morality of the Native Americans as…
they existed before contact with missionaries and other whites. This is a rare firsthand expression of native religion, without the filters imposed by translators or anthropologists. Rather than a scientific treatise, Eastman has written a book, "as true as I can make it to my childhood teaching and ancestral ideals, but from the human, not the ethnological standpoint." His discussions of the forms of ceremonial and symbolic worship, the unwritten scriptures, and the spirit world emphasize the universal quality and personal appeal of Native American religion. Adult. UnratedBy Stephen T. Asma. 2009
Philosophy professor probes Western perceptions, phobias, and self-preservation instincts to examine the cultural and conceptual history of monsters. Describes strange…
animal encounters and manifestations in ancient and medieval times, and expounds on the biblical and scientific explanations of these creatures. Includes observations of humankind's psychological demons. 2009By Denise Ortakales. 2004
Denise Ortakales recounts the legends of Chief Pemigewasset, whose stead fast love and devotion to his wife was honores in…
his profile on the mountainside of Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire know as the Old Man of the MountainBy Craig Morgan Teicher. 2010
Timeless yet timely and hopeful with a dark underbelly, these fables revive a tradition running from Aesop to W.S. Merwin.…
With a poet's mastery, Craig Morgan Teicher creates strange worlds populated by animals fated for disaster and the people who interact with them, or simply act like them, including a very sad boy who wishes he had been raised by wolves. There are also a handful of badly behaving gods, a talking tree, and a shape-shifting room.Craig Morgan Teicher is poetry editor of Publishers Weekly and a vice president on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.By Sheryl James. 2013
Over the course of its history, the state of Michigan has produced its share of folktales and lore. Many are…
familiar with the Ojibwa legend of Sleeping Bear Dunes, and most have heard a yarn or two told of Michigan's herculean lumberjack, Paul Bunyan. But what about Detroit's Nain Rouge, the red-eyed imp they say bedeviled the city's earliest residents? Or Le Griffon, the Great Lakes' original ghost ship that some believe haunts the waters to this day? Or the Bloodstoppers, Upper Peninsula folk who've been known to halt a wound's bleeding with a simple touch thanks to their magic healing powers? In Michigan Legends, Sheryl James collects these and more stories of the legendary people, events, and places from Michigan's real and imaginary past. Set in a range of historical time periods and locales as well as featuring a collage of ethnic traditions--including Native American, French, English, African American, and Finnish--these tales are a vivid sample of the state's rich cultural heritage. This book will appeal to all Michiganders and anyone else interested in good folktales, myths, legends, or lore.By Robert Carter. 1988
Art instrutor Rober Carter's illustrated book is both enjoyable and informative, written in an engaging style. Rhymes of Mother Goose…
he suggests, frequently are spiritual parables. He compares many of the famous aphorisms from Lao Tsu's Tao The Ching, noting simitarities of viewpoints. Carter feels that teaching of the Chinese philosopher and even Mother Goose nursery rhymes are addresses to some deeper level within each one of us. Consequently, a simple word, phrase, or idea in this meditative picture book might spark something deep within the reader.By Robert Carter. 1988
By Richard Erdoes. 1998
Of all the characters in myths and legends told around the world, it's the wily trickster who provides the real…
spark in the action, causing trouble wherever he goes. This figure shows up time and again in Native American folklore, where he takes many forms, from the irascible Coyote of the Southwest, to Iktomi, the amorphous spider man of the Lakota tribe. This dazzling collection of American Indian trickster tales, compiled by an eminent anthropologist and a master storyteller, serves as the perfect companion to their previous masterwork, American Indian Myths and Legends. American Indian Trickster Tales includes more than one hundred stories from sixty tribes? many recorded from living storytellers?which are illustrated with lively and evocative drawings. These entertaining tales can be read aloud and enjoyed by readers of any age, and will entrance folklorists, anthropologists, lovers of Native American literature, and fans of both Joseph Campbell and the Brothers Grimm. .By Desmond Tutu, Mayumi Oda, Anne Herbert, Margaret Paloma Pavel. 2014
With beautifully crafted words and exuberant watercolor illustrations, Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty offers a poetic and empowering…
message for world peace. Recognizing "we are right on the edge of destroying ourselves," this modern allegory inspires taking joyful steps to end violence. It expands upon the idea that "we are all in the circle together," and presents a timeless parable for readers of all ages. The Haiku-like text delivers a call to "make a new earth grow beneath our feet." In the playful style of 12th century Japanese picture scrolls, Mayumi Oda's art depicts humans as animals who lose their way when their leaders become confused and drawn to violence. It is up to each individual? the frog who plants a thriving garden, the cat who supports an elderly neighbor as they walk? to create a better world through simple acts of kindness. The message of this book is the sweet realization that each person can become an agent of goodness and beauty. This twentieth-anniversary, full-color edition, with a new foreword by venerable peacemaker Desmond Tutu, is dedicated to world peace and recovery in the face of world climate crises. All royalties will be donated to community resiliency across boundaries and antinuclear advocacy.By Desmond Tutu, Mayumi Oda, Anne Herbert, Margaret Paloma Pavel. 2014
With beautifully crafted words and exuberant watercolor illustrations, Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty offers a poetic and empowering…
message for world peace. Recognizing "we are right on the edge of destroying ourselves," this modern allegory inspires taking joyful steps to end violence. It expands upon the idea that "we are all in the circle together," and presents a timeless parable for readers of all ages. The Haiku-like text delivers a call to "make a new earth grow beneath our feet." In the playful style of 12th century Japanese picture scrolls, Mayumi Oda's art depicts humans as animals who lose their way when their leaders become confused and drawn to violence. It is up to each individual? the frog who plants a thriving garden, the cat who supports an elderly neighbor as they walk? to create a better world through simple acts of kindness. The message of this book is the sweet realization that each person can become an agent of goodness and beauty. This twentieth-anniversary, full-color edition, with a new foreword by venerable peacemaker Desmond Tutu, is dedicated to world peace and recovery in the face of world climate crises. All royalties will be donated to community resiliency across boundaries and antinuclear advocacy.By Desmond Tutu, Mayumi Oda, Anne Herbert, Margaret Paloma Pavel. 2014
With beautifully crafted words and exuberant watercolor illustrations, Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty offers a poetic and empowering…
message for world peace. Recognizing "we are right on the edge of destroying ourselves," this modern allegory inspires taking joyful steps to end violence. It expands upon the idea that "we are all in the circle together," and presents a timeless parable for readers of all ages. The Haiku-like text delivers a call to "make a new earth grow beneath our feet." In the playful style of 12th century Japanese picture scrolls, Mayumi Oda's art depicts humans as animals who lose their way when their leaders become confused and drawn to violence. It is up to each individual? the frog who plants a thriving garden, the cat who supports an elderly neighbor as they walk? to create a better world through simple acts of kindness. The message of this book is the sweet realization that each person can become an agent of goodness and beauty. This twentieth-anniversary, full-color edition, with a new foreword by venerable peacemaker Desmond Tutu, is dedicated to world peace and recovery in the face of world climate crises. All royalties will be donated to community resiliency across boundaries and antinuclear advocacy.By Martin Shaw. 2020
Master mythologist Martin Shaw uses timeless story-wisdom to examine our broken relationship with the world There is an old legend…
that says we each have a wild, curious twin that was thrown out the window the night we were born, taking much of our vitality with them. If there was something we were meant to do with our few, brief years on Earth, we can be sure that the wild twin is holding the key. In Courting the Wild Twin, Dr. Martin Shaw invites us to seek out our wild twin––a metaphor for the part of ourselves that we generally shun or ignore to conform to societal norms––to invite them back into our consciousness, for they have something important to tell us. He challenges us to examine our broken relationship with the world, to think boldly, wildly, and in new ways about ourselves—as individuals and as a collective. Through the use of scholarship, storytelling, and personal reflection, Shaw unpacks two ancient European fairy tales that concern the mysterious wild twin. By reading these tales and becoming storytellers ourselves, he suggests we can restore our agency and confront modern challenges with purpose, courage, and creativity. Courting the Wild Twin is a declaration of literary activism and an antidote to the shallow thinking that typifies our age. Shaw asks us to recognize mythology as a secret weapon—a radical, beautiful, heart-shuddering agent of deep, lasting change.