Keepers of the Night

by Michael J. Caduto and Joseph Bruchac
Illustrated by David K. Fadden

“Keepers of the Night” includes eight Native North American stories with a focus on nature and the outdoors during nighttime.

The first story is called “The Birth of Light”. The Yuchi tribe uses this story to explain to children that night is another world that can only be driven back by people with fire. The fire first came from the sun when the sun answered the wind’s request for more light. The sun tried, “So hard that some of her sweat fell upon the earth. Where that sweat fell, the first people sprang up.”

After the reader reads each story, explanations of the story are given, how other tribes explain the same events, poems, and reference materials are listed. The book even shows drawing, provides lists of materials needed, and explains activities step-by-step to help the reader understand the stories. Detailed explanations are given with diagrams how to make a campfire, how to make game pieces, and game boards. Crafts compliment each story. “Keepers of the Night” even provides lesson plans with questions and answers. Teachers and scout leaders would love this book!

Dancing children and a bear become constellations. A chipmunk is tricked, and a brown squirrel is given the gift of flight for helping the sun rise into the sky, and other wonderful stories fascinate the reader.

“Keepers of the Night” is a fabulous book. Besides telling the Native American version of the stories, it includes the scientific explanation behind each natural event in the stories in easy to understand language.

I checked the book out from the library, but now I have to buy it because an idea for a book of my own came to me while I read it!