Pele and the Rivers of Fire
Kindergarten-Grade 3-Hawaii's volcano goddess, Pele, has become more familiar to mainland Americans through her appearance in folklore collections and several works of children's fiction, including Dan Greenburg's The Volcano Goddess Will See You Now (Grosset & Dunlap, 1997) and Gloria Skurzynski's Rage of Fire (National Geographic, 1999). Nordenstrom brings the legend to picture-book form as Pele moves from island to island following her shark brother and chased by her ocean sister. Each place that she settles erupts into a new volcanic island. This pourquoi tale is heavy on the "pourquoi" and light on the "tale." The illustrations are paper cuttings, reminiscent of, but not as detailed as, those by David Wisniewski. The image of Pele in nearly every picture gives a repetitive feel to the pages, and her awkwardly portrayed mouth on many pages hints at a mustache. Despite these drawbacks, libraries in areas that study the Hawaiian Islands will want a copy of this book to document one legend about the islands' formation.Ellen Heath, Orchard School, Ridgewood, NJCopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.