Reviews for Ma'ii and cousin Horned Toad

The average rating for Ma'ii and cousin Horned Toad based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-03-18 00:00:00 Jason Parks Ma'ii, or Coyote, was always hungry. But although he liked to eat, he didn't like to work for his food, preferring to visit his various relations, one after another, and let them feed him. Stuffing himself on the corn provided by his cousin Horned Toad, Ma'ii begins to imagine that eating his little relation, and taking over his farm, is the answer to all his problems. Then he will always have enough to eat! But things don't work out quite as he envisioned, and Ma'ii soon finds that having Horned Toad in his belly is not a very comfortable sensation... I enjoyed this humorous Navajo folktale immensely - it's always fun to see the trickster tricked - and thought the illustrations, created with "watercolor, gouache, color pencil and magic," were just lovely. The color scheme appealed to me, and I found Ma'ii's facial expressions very droll. Raised in a traditional Navajo home, Shonto Begay - who has also illustrated Ramona Maher's Alice Yazzie's Year and Lois Duncan's The Magic of Spider Woman - brings an obvious respect and affection to this traditional tale, and I thank him for sharing it with readers. Highly recommended!

Review # 2 was written on 2011-06-24 00:00:00 Anna Woody Trickster Coyote, Ma'ii, is bested by good-hearted Horned Toad: Coyote, in order to steal Horned Toad's farm, swallows the little creature, who then takes revenge from inside Coyote's guts. "Horned Toad's skin was too rough for Ma'ii's delicate insides. He swam through the tunnels and strange spaces inside of Ma'ii until he came upon Ma'ii's big, fat, thumping heart. Ma'ii screamed and begged for mercy. "Horned Toad gave Ma'ii's heart one big tug, then another. Ma'ii yelped and fell to the ground. He had fainted from fright."