CM Magazine: The Dog Who Walked with God.

________________ CM . . . . Volume V Number 10 . . . . January 15, 1999

The Dog Who Walked with God.

Michael J. Rosen. Illustrated by Stan Fellows.
Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press (distributed in Canada by University of Toronto Press), 1998.
32 pp, cloth, $19.99.
ISBN 0-7636-0470-4.

Subject Headings:
Kato Indians-Folklore.
Folklore-California.
Creation-Folklore.

Kindergarten - grade 6 / Ages 5 - 11.
Review by Irene Gordon.

**** /4

The Dog Who Walked with God is the retelling of the creation story of the Kato Indians of California. It shares many similarities with the Biblical creation and flood stories, even to the cadence of the text such as illustrated in the opening lines:

Water, they say, was everywhere and land was not. Mountains were not, and stones were not. And neither were there trees or grass or fish or deer or grizzlies or wolves. People, too, had been all washed away, they say, along with all these animals of every kind. Only water lived everywhere.

There are two main differences between the Kato and the Biblical story. The first is that the Kato creator, known as the Great Traveler, is accompanied by his dog companion. The second is that much less emphasis is placed on human beings and more on animals and plants in the Kato version than in the Biblical one. An "Author's Note" says that the Kato, who have died out since this story was collected by an anthropologist in 1906, were a people who had a great reverence for all living things and especially loved their dogs.

The story is beautifully illustrated in watercolour and pencil by Stan Fellows. Many of the pictures of animals and plants are labeled by the calligraphy of Nancy Ruth Leavitt. This book can be used in several ways: as a myth or creation story, in a study of Aboriginal peoples, in a study of plants and animals. As well, readers can simply enjoy the story and the art work.

Highly recommended.

Irene Gordon, of Headingley, MB, is a free-lance writer and former teacher-librarian who spent 14 years working in a junior high school library.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - JANUARY 15, 1999.