Ancient Night by David Bowles (Author) David Alvarez (Illustrator)
At the start of things, the elders say,
the universe was hushed and still.
The moon alone shone bright and round
in the star-speckled dark of the sky.
I love myths, I feel they are constant sources of information and that they invite us to wonder : after all, they are one of our first ways to answer tricky questions about the universe and the origin of things.
David Álvarez and David Bowles have decided, here, to reenact and mix two Nahuatl traditions: the rabbit which the Feathered Serpent placed on the moon, and Yaushu, the Lord Opossum who ruled the earth before humans came, and who stole fire from the gods to create the sun.
Lord Opossum is the tricky one, the one that makes huge mistakes which then he has to fix. The rabbit would be the sapient creature who was taking care of things in the first place, in this case, he was filling up the empty jug that is the moon with delicious and bright aguamiel (agave nectar).
That is until Lord Opossum fancies a drink and cracks the pot whilst doing so. What to do now? How will these two mythical creatures make the ancient night bright again?
“For thousands of years, the peoples of Mesoamerica have retold these stories and many, many more, changing them bit by bit, adding and subtracting the ideas that matter to them. Even today, you can hear new versions in communities across Mexico and Central America. In this book, we have done the same: pairing up the rabbit and the opossum made creative sense to us. They are both associated with major lights in our skies, and tying them together along with the Great Ceiba and aguamiel felt like imagining a much older version of their tales, something truly ancient, from a time long forgotten, when wise and foolish animals ruled the world, waiting for humans to finally emerge” (Álvarez and Bowles).
This is a great conversation starter, a picture book that feels both ancient and modern at the same time, and I am very glad I get to present it to you.
A word about the publisher, Levine Querido: this new imprint was recently founded (2019) and its aim is to offer a diverse selection of “The Best of the World’s Literature for Young People” to American readers. You can check their catalog here, it hosts a world of great works in translations and a lot of novel content.
‘Ancient Night’ is on sale since March 14, 2023
Publisher: Levine Querido
Publish Date: March 14, 2023
Pages: 40
Type: Hardcover
EAN/UPC: 9781646142514
BISAC Categories: People & Places – United States – Native American -History – Central & South America
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