Journey of the Nightly Jaguar Traditional Fantasy
By Burton Albert, Illustrated by Robert Roth

“Journey of the Nightly Jaguar” is a traditional fantasy picture book about Mayan Indians in Central American. These Indians believed that happenings in nature were caused my G-ds. These happenings sometimes took forms of animals. The jaguar is the most feared and most G-d like animal. One of the strongest aspects of this book is the comparison the author makes to provide visualization for readers. For example, Albert describes the raindrops to golden coins. The raindrops feel heavy and were treasured to the Mayan Indians in Central America. The Mayans believed that the rain made the sports on a jaguar. Albert says, “A spray of shimmering bubbles that hang in the air like silver cymbals”. The comparisons (similes) really took “Journey of the Nightly Jaguar” to the next level. In the end the Jaguar bursts in to the sun and the sun rises a glorious red again. One thing I didn’t really like about the book was the fact that it was unclear if the jaguar only comes out when it rains or only at night. It was a cute traditional fantasy story, but I thought the ledged of the jaguar was sort of vague. It would not be my first tradition fantasy choice, but I thought it was a good one that depicted a tale of Mayan Indians in Central America. ( )

Traditional Literature Folktale Book Review

Burton, Albert. Journey of the nightly jaguar : inspired by an ancient Mayan myth. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1996.

Characters: Jaguar, Monkey and the Sun

Setting: Mayan Jungle in the Mexican-Guatemalan border A.D. 600 - 900

Theme: Ancient Civilization, Animals, Day and Night

Genre: Folklore Tale, Fiction

Golden quote: "a spray of shimmering bubbles that hang in the air like silver cymbals till that one magical moment when this cat of the night bursts into the morning sun and rises a glorious red....once again."

Summary: In this Maya legend the sun becomes a jaguar at night, stalking through the jungle until it appears again as the sun in the eastern sky. the nightly jaguar begins his journey through the dark jungle, where the wind whistles to the monkey's chatter. As the night ends, he climbs into the canopy at the jungle's edge, springs into the ocean, and rises again with the sun.

Audience: Elementary -Middle school students.

Curriculum ties: World Civilization, The Mayan civilization

Personal response: This book would be great read for young girls and boys that are learning about early ancient civilization in history. This book is great to also incorporate multiculturalism to the classroom. It is an excellent tool for teachers that have Latin-American students because they will be able to relate to the book and also feel interested in reading and developing comprehension skills.