IRA-CBC Children's Choice 
Award 2002

Jabutí the Tortoise


A Trickster Tale from the Amazon

Told and Illustrated by 
Gerald McDermott

Harcourt

His shell is smooth and shiny.
His song is sweet.
At least to some...

Jabutí (zha-boo-CHEE) is the favorite of all the animals in the rain forest, although he sometimes plays the gentlest of tricks on others.  Vulture has no song at all, and then a concert is held in heaven, he offers to fly the little tortoise there...all the while plotting a trick of his own.

This fresh addition to Gerald McDermott's award-winning trickster series is an unusual tale of a trickster's fall from grace, and of how creation and beauty can sometimes come from chaos.