The Bluebonnet Girl - Hardcover

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K-Gr. 3. Lind presents a colorful retelling of the Comanche legend that explains why bluebonnets grow in Texas. When summer brings a drought, the buffalo disperse and the people grow thin. The Spirit Talker receives a message that the drought is punishment for greed, so the people must sacrifice what they treasure the most in a campfire. Shamefully, Little Bison refuses to give up his bird-bone vest, River Crane won't part with her moccasins, and Returning Wolf keeps his leather shield, so no offering is made. But later that night, a little girl leaves her tepee and places her beloved doll with its soft hood of blue jay feathers into the fire. Rain arrives the next day--along with bluebonnets, which return every spring. Handsome acrylic paintings accentuate the drama as does the vivid poetic imagery: "Blue as the slant of an afternoon squall, / blue as an ox-bow lagoon--above all, / blue as the feathers that burned on the doll--/ bluebonnets wavered." An author's note cites resources, gives some background on the Comanche, and relates the origin of the legend and the flower's name. Julie Cummins
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Grade 2-4-This long-winded retelling in verse of the legend of the Texas Bluebonnet lacks child appeal. The story, popularized in Tomie dePaola's The Legend of the Bluebonnet (Putnam, 1983), finds the Comanche people suffering from a dearth of rain. In Lind's version, Spirit Talker tells the people that the drought is punishment for people's greediness, and that "Whatever you own that you treasure,/what you will not trade for a price,/that you must toss in the campfire,/that you must sacrifice." No one is willing to destroy a most prized possession, and the people leave the campfire with their heads bowed in shame. That night, one girl tosses her beloved doll into the fire. The rains come, and in the morning, the plains are covered in blue flowers. The versions of this story available online and in dePaola's book suggest a different interpretation of these people; they have become selfish (not "greedy"), and must make a smoke offering of the most prized possession among them. All of them consider their own thing of value to be too insignificant, but the girl knows that it is her beloved doll that the spirits must want. Lind's different (and less kindly) interpretation is further burdened by belabored verse in varying meter and rhyme that, though occasionally lovely (usually when elaborating on a nonessential detail of setting), makes the story far too long and ponderous. Kiesler's impressionistic acrylic illustrations are full of light and color, but aren't well served by Lind's words.
Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CA
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