THE LOST CHILDREN

As Goble explains, "This story is based on a sacred Blackfoot myth, telling the origin of the Pleiades." Setting the stage with a glimpse of the storyteller, when "the Star People are looking down at us through the smoke hole," Goble describes six homeless, hungry orphans, clothed in their neighbors' discards, taunted, befriended only by the camp dogs. Determined to find another home, they decide against being flowers ("the buffaloes will eat us") or stones, which break, and agree to become stars. In their ascent, one looks back and becomes a comet; the others are taken in by Sun and Moon, who punish the earth with a drought, relenting, in time, for the sake of the animals; the children, surrounded by the faithful dogs, can still be seen clustered in the sky. Goble's distinctive style is used with such imagination that it never grows stale; here, the beautifully decorated tipis and tightly grouped orphans provide motifs for the harmonious compositions, while spare scenes of the drought contrast dramatically with the fecundity elsewhere. A grand addition to a notable oeuvre, with a powerful contemporary message. (Folklore/Picture book. 4+)