I love this book. It gives a great account of the creation of the summer and winter seasons. It is an early reader book and covers the tricksters coyote and raven while on the task to steal summer from the old woman. The animals successfully highjack the bag of summer from the Native peoples and agree to share it with them in the end, whereby creating two seasons. Concept/Classroom use: Creation story, cultural diversity, Folklore lesson.

In this beautiful North American Indian folkstory,Coyote makes his home in the woods and has had enough of the long winter,so he seeks out the help of the raven. Raven explains that an old woman has kept summer all to herself for her and her four children by hiding it in a black bag. He gathers his other friends of the woods - wolf, elk, moose, stag and antelope, and they make a plan. Wolf creates a distraction so coyote can steal the black bag from the woman's tepee. Working together the animals each take a turn running with the bag while the children chase after them. Coyote manages to open the bag and out comes summer! Coyote's lesson to everyone is that they must not be greedy and both humans and animals alike must share summer in harmony. There is limited reading in this book and beautiful illustrations which help to tell the story. This makes it an ideal book for Division one elementary students just learning to read.