Night Dancer

by Marcia K. Vaughan, Lisa Desimini (Illustrator)

A lyrical picture book poem featuring Kokopelli, the beloved humpbacked southwestern Native American god.

This lyrical poem follows Kokopelli, the god of dance and music, as he travels through the moonlit desert playing his flute and inviting the desert animals to join in his dance. Coyote, Snake, Tortoise, Javelina, Jackrabbit, Tarantula, and the sleeping children of a nearby pueblo accept his invitation, and joyously follow this pied piper of the Rio Grande in his midnight dance.

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2002

About the author

Marcia Vaughan became a librarian in 1975 so that she could inspire children to read. After a short while, she began writing her own books. Her first two stories were never published but her third, ‘Wombat Stew’, illustrated by Pamela Lofts, was published in 1984. It might now be considered a classic of Australian children’s literature.

Reviews

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

We liked the illustrations, but my daughter and I were both disappointed by the lack of information on Kokpelli in this book.

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enchanting rhythm

[Caycee Hatchette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Personal Reaction- I really enjoyed this book. I thought that the story was interesting and the illustrations also made the story that much more enjoyable for me.The illustrations were mainly dark but the colors used were so deep and rich that it gave the pages life.

Read aloud- I think this book is better geared towards children that range from first grade to third grade, to read aloud. There are some elements of the story that might confuse kids such as the different animals. and words but I think that as you go along and read it aloud, you can pause to clarify so that the students understand what is happening. There are also some words that are written as sort of a song and I think that the students of younger grades would like to hear it and sing along.

Literary elements: This book would be good to show how the plot build off of itself. It introduces ideas or events and then the story continues to build from it. You could have student brainstorm what sort of things are important to have an order to (daily routine, process of waiting in line, buying food). Doing this would allow students to be able to see how important doing things in order is because without order, everything would be in chaos. If you were really adventurous, you could see if your students wanted to create a song or a rhyme that followed their order that they thought of.

[Dione Basseri · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not a fan of this book, actually. And I think, for a large part, my issue is that the author, as far as my research indicates, has no actual blood connection to any Southwest tribes, or any American continent tribes at all. Do correct me if I'm wrong, because I'd really like to think that there's one less book about tribal tales written by a non-tribal person! But Vaughan writes primarily about Australia, and that just doesn't fit.

As for the story, it's pretty meh, for me. It's a building story, with each page dedicated to the piper picking up a new dancer to his music. Unfortunately, the names of the dancers aren't repeated, as you'd often expect from such a story, so it feels a bit off.

The artwork is pretty fascinating, actually. A mix of realism and dreamlike imagery. The animals and surroundings all look so intricate that they almost look like slightly altered photographs, rather than paintings. Also, from what I can tell, the artist DOES have a connection to American continent tribes, so I feel a little more comfortable with her. Though, again, my research may be wrong.

A lot of people probably aren't going to care about the author's connection to tribes, but it's important to me, and until I see proof otherwise, I'm afraid I can't back this book.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gorgeous illustrations.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fascinating story about Kokopelli, the mythological minstrel/hunter/priest who is depicted in various ways and with various powers in the different Southwest Native American communities. This story lacks the typical illustration of Kokopelli, the popular icon of a music-making and playful spirit. I tried to explain how he is typically depicted and our girls have seen the image before, but the night dancer in this book looks enough different for them to visualize it. The illustrations are strange and somewhat eerie; they look like a combination of drawing and photograph, with detailed images in the foreground and more fuzzy images in the back. The drawings at the end of the children in the pueblo are actually quite creepy, looking more like ghosts than children waking up. Overall, this was a good story; the illustrations were a bit disconcerting at times, but our girls enjoyed the tale.

[Chris Young · Rating 1 out of 5]

Everything about this book irritates me. It's not really about Kokopelli, whom the author refers to as "the pied piper of the Rio Grande, but more of a whose who of the desert animal kingdom. Desert creatures and eventually Native American children line up behind the Kokopelli for a sort of conga line across the night until the sun comes up and they all go home. As it is written here, Kokopelli is NOTHING like the pied piper story we've all hear before, where a disgruntled ratcatcher makes off with a town's children. This story has no dramatic arc, which might be okay if the goofy, sing-song, rhyming refrain didn't sound so antithetical to real Native American songs, translated or otherwise. Instead we get a text that feels very white-washed. I wonder what a Native American author could have done with this subject.

[Jessica Marcum · Rating 2 out of 5]

Picture Book: The actual text of this book I liked well enough. The rhyming was really fun and I liked the song that he sings. The only thing was I HATED the illustrations! They are kind of computerized...but maybe like 90's computerized. I don't know...I just didn't like them very much, and it kind of distracted me the whole time I was reading.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too long and lyrical for my toddler. He was a little interested in the various animals taking part in the dance. But even my best attempts at singing the verse couldn't keep him sitting through the whole book. I could imagine maybe older kids would like it -- perhaps as a drum-accompanied dance where each child played one of the animal characters...?

[lunarlibrarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been a long time since I've seen Kokopelli - the first I heard of him was my summer at the Grand Canyon, where there were images of him everywhere! So, I read the book. I hoped for information, but it was kid's rhyming, sing-song book. Beautiful illustrations. The information material I was looking for was included at the end.

[Ueva · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book about Kokopelli with beautiful rhymes and artwork. I would recommend it to anyone who has a fascination with Native North American Lore.

[Mckinley · Rating 2 out of 5]

The music played by Kokopelli lures the animals to come follow him through the night.