Folklore & Folktales

It wasn't until beginning at Dominican that I began really reading author's notes in books. Ever since really diving into folklore, folktales, and fairy tales; this has been the section that I read first. The two collections that I feature here have very different author notes in regards to the cultures they've pulled from, how they themselves fit into that culture, and the provenance of each story.

According to critic and folklorist Dr. Betsey Herne, there are five different categories authors should look at for citing their sources in folklore. These include model source notes (describe the cultural context of the story), well-made source notes (notes that are highly visible), fine-print source notes, background-as-source notes (general information), and nonexistent source notes. 

In Tales Our Abuelitas Told, we are given an assortment of source notes and are explicitly told that the stories we're about to hear are from the author's heritage (as the title also informs us). The book opens with an introduction into the cultural history of Spain and her peoples along with many influences garnered to them due to their proximity to trade routes. Trickster is completely opposite of this. The editor doesn't flat-out state what his ethnicity is, but does tell us that he's not a Native American and is someone who saw a lack in publishing. His notes are at the end of the text and he briefly discusses his issues with finding indigenous storytellers who would contribute to his book. But he does get some buy-in which opens up his concept. The back of the book includes mini-biographies for all forty-four contributors and its here where we can find the specific tribes these stories are attributed to. I don't believe that all folklore story formats should say something like, "Coyote and the Pebbles, a Caddo Nations Tale" for example, but I do believe that there is always the opportunity to present this information in a way that doesn't require flipping back and forth from the text to the biography notes.

Tales Our Abuelitas Told: A Hispanic Folktale Collection. Written by F. Isabel Campoy and Alma Flor Ada. Illustrated by Felipe Davales, Vivi Escriva, Susan Guevara, and Lelya Torres. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2006. 128 pages. $19.99. ISBN 9780689825835

Ages 5 - 10. Before the reader can even jump into the twelve folktales within, they receive a concise and extremely informative history lesson on the origins of Spanish folklore. Campoy discusses the location of Spain and its proximity to Africa, Europe, and the Mediterranean Sea and the many influences these regions, religious beliefs, and people brought to their storytelling. The two writers and the four illustrations swap around between telling and illustrating each piece which allows for some diversity but still sounding and looking cohesive. At the end of each tale, there are author notes that include its origins, anecdotes about when the author came across the story or who told it to them, and any changes that they made to the original. The stories are written to be read aloud by an adult storyteller to a child audience, but each story has about one full-page illustration that keeps this book from being a traditional picture book read aloud.

Trickster: Native American Tales. By Matt Dembicki. Fulcrum Books, 2010. 248 pages. $22.95. ISBN 9781555917241

Ages 12 years and up. Dembicki, a non-Native American, states in his author's notes at the end of the book that he wanted to create this collection after noticing an absence of Native American folklore in his local library. He briefly discusses the difficulties of being trusted by the storytellers he sought out due to mistrust and possible questionable intentions. In the end, he was able to find collection of contributors who would write this collection of trickster tales and they in turn selected their own illustrators. The intro to each tale does not specifically state what tribe or region of the Americas these stories come from. There are twenty-one stories in this collection and each is told in a graphic novel or comic book layout. Since there are forty-four people contributing to this collection the writing and artistic style vary wildly from story to story making the book feel incohesive but very much in line with the word "collection." This might appeal to the intended audience with its wide-cast approach that would allow young readers to find something of interest within its pages. 

Betsey Hearne source concepts from "Cite The Source: Reducing Cultural Chaos in Picture Books, Part One."