Native American legend and Goble's (The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses) award-winning artwork coalesce to bring another mythic tale grandly to life. Recounting the origin of both Blackfoot tipis and their symbolic designs, Caldecott-winner Goble employs several distinct media: black-and-white diagrams, photographs and his trademark watercolor and gouache paintings. Napi, the Great Spirit's helper, was inspired by the shape of a leaf to provide the first man and women with a tipi for shelter. Eloquently melding geometric and naturalistic free-form designs, Goble places this initial story inside a large painting of a cottonwood leaf and demonstrates its inspiration by superimposing a tipi diagram over the leaf shape at the bottom of the page. A spread then gives intricate step-by-step instructions of how to pitch a tipi. Through the sweeping panoramas of his watercolors, Goble next relates the story of how spirit paintings came to exist on Blackfoot tipis. When Sacred Otter and his son become trapped in a blizzard, the man dreams that he visits Storm Maker's tipi. Full-spread vertical views of the tipi's exterior and interior reveal Goble at his finest, intermingling texture, form and color. "When the warm weather returns, paint one just like it. Then your family will be safe from storms always," Storm Maker commands. Goble's instructive storytelling prepares readers for this stunning visual adventure. Ages 5-8. (Oct.)
