Nine-In-One, Grr! Grr!: A Folktale from the Hmong People of Laos

When Tiger inquires of the great god Shao how many cubs she will have, she is admonished that only if she remembers his reply--nine cubs each year--will it hold true. ``Nine-in-one, Grr! Grr!'' she sings as she heads home. The clever Eu bird wishes a more favorable tiger-to-bird ratio and so tricks Tiger into singing, instead, ``One-in-nine, Grr! Grr!''--and that is why the earth is not overrun with tigers today. This imaginative folktale provides a rare window into the lore of the Hmong people of Laos, yet is anything but parochial or arcane in its appeal. It embraces a range of universal qualities, from loneliness to joyful anticipation to deviousness and guile, and portrays its characters with sympathy and wit. Hom's strikingly colorful paintings, modeled on the appliqued ``story cloths'' of the Hmong, ably capture a sense of character and landscape and extend the fable's whimsy and good humor. Ages 4-10. (Jan.)