The Tale of Rabbit and Coyote - Hardcover

Tony Johnston is the award-winning author of more than 100 beloved children’s books. Throughout her career, she has worked at a children's bookstore, taught a course on picture book writing at UCLA, and studied poetry writing for children with Myra Cohn Livingston. Johnston lives with her family in San Marino, California, where she grew up.

Tomie dePaola was born in Meriden, Connecticut, in 1934, to a family of Irish and Italian background. His determination to create books for children led to a BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and an MFA from the California College of Arts & Crafts in Oakland, California. 

His particular way with color, line, detail, and design have earned him many of the most prestigious awards in his field, among them a Caldecott Honor Award for Strega Nona, the Smithsonian Medal, the Kerlan Award from the University of Minnesota for his "singular attainment in children's literature," the Catholic Library Association's Regina Medal for his "continued distinguished contribution," and the University of Southern Mississippi Medallion. He was also the 1990 United States nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for illustration, and received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for lifetime contribution to children's literature in 2011.

DePaola has published almost 200 children's books in 15 different countries over the past 30 years. Among his most well-known titles are the Strega Nona series, 26 Fairmount Avenue, and The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush.

DePaola lives in an interesting house in New Hampshire with his four dogs. His studio is in a large renovated 200-year-old barn.

Ages 4-8. Foolish Coyote is deceived again and again by trickster Rabbit in this humorous tale, rooted in the folklore of Oaxaca, Mexico. Rabbit is stuck fast to a wax image a farmer has placed in his field to punish Rabbit for stealing his chiles. Despite that, the wily trickster manages to dupe Coyote into taking his place in the stew pot. Coyote barely escapes, and in his angry pursuit of Rabbit, he is continuously outwitted. In one episode, he is tricked into drinking a lake full of water to reach the "cheese" Rabbit wants to share with him; the "cheese" is actually the full moon's reflection. In a pourquoi-style ending, Coyote is left howling at the real moon on which Rabbit has taken refuge. DePaola's vivid, spicy palette of gold, red, and turquoise tones and his use of folk-art borders evoke the desert setting and complement the broad humor of Johnston's text. A glossary of the Spanish phrases that pepper the illustrations is appended. The story blends many familiar folklore motifs, and the rabbit trickster brings to mind the antics of Brer Rabbit. An author's note indicates the source of the tale as a Spanish-language version by painter Francisco Toledo; a similar version of the tale in John Bierhorst's Monkey's Haircut (1986) cites older Mayan sources. A zesty collaboration. Karen Harvey