The Legend of the Windigo

The Bibliography
Ross, Gayle. 1996. The Legend of the Windigo. Ill. by Murv Jacob. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0803718977

The Characters
Various American Indian legends and tribes were considered when writing The Legend of the Windigo. This retelling of the story includes several village elders, a smart young boy and of course, the dreaded Windigo.

The Plot
The man-eating Windigo is lurking around in the North Woodlands and begins to eat villagers one by one. The villagers love their land and do not want to abandon it, so the elders pray to the spirit protectors for advice. With the help of a smart boy and a broken rock, they devise a plan to rid themselves of the Windigo. Just when they think their problems with the Windigo have burned along with him, his ashes turn into a swarm of mosquitoes. The Windigo still lives on in those mosquitoes, eating people one tiny, tiny bite at a time.

The Setting
a village in the North Woodlands

The Theme
never let fear (or man-eating monsters) stop you

The Style
The Legend of the Windigo is retelling of the folkloric tale of the Windigo, passed down through many American Indian tribes and generations, that is perfect for a night full of spine-tingling tales around the campfire.

The Analysis
I love all sorts of folktales and fairy tales. 398.2s are the best books in the world! They're great for memorizing and retelling, creating reader's theatre, and (as in The Legend of the Windigo) learning the traditions of another culture. The story is eerie, but not so scary that it couldn't be told to story-lovers of all ages. The illustrations are rich acrylic on watercolor paper and are bold without too much detail. It's kind of reminiscent of the tale, actually. Mysterious with lots of background, like the story passed down from generation to generation and tribe to tribe, but there aren't enough details to pin anything down exactly.

The Cultural Markers
Illustrations: The acrylic illustrations in The Legend of the Windigo are bright and colorful. The illustrations are focused more on the nature of the area rather than the people in the story, since the story is from multiple backgrounds. The people in the story are painted in what is assumed to be typical for American Indians... leather-esq clothing, dark reddish hued skin, long dark hair, with bows and arrows, feathers and spears.

Text: There are not many cultural markers in the text other than language patterns and some forms of address. The elders are sometimes referred to as wise ones ("Finally it was decided that the elders, the wise ones, would seek the help and guidance of the spirit protectors of their land."), but then they are called Grandparents by the young boy. There is a ceremony described in the text ("Through prayer, fasting, and ceremony the elders would surely be shown the right thing to do."), but the author's note in the back discusses these sweat lodge ceremonies, saying "As with everything else, sweat ceremonies vary from tribe to tribe.... For that reason, and because many traditional peoples are very protective of their own rituals, the ceremony depicted here does not represent the specific spiritual tradition of any one tribe.")

The Review
Gisela Jernigan, Ph.D. (Children's Literature)
The Native Peoples of a Northwoods village are content living in the sheltering, deer-filled forest, next to the bright blue, fish-filled lake, but that changes when the dreaded Windigo, a giant, hypnotizing, shape-changing, man-eating creature made of stone, starts preying on the helpless villagers. How the elders, with the help of a clever boy, manage to destroy the monster, makes for an exciting tale that manages to combine both horror and humor. The Windigo gets his revenge, by becoming the infamous northern mosquitoes. Brooding, mostly dark colored acrylic paintings match the scariness of the tale, while also portraying some of the beauty of the forest. An author's note explains how this retelling is influenced by several Native American cultures of the Northern United States.

The Connection
I'd share this tale along with The Windigo's Return by Douglas Wood and compare the two stories. Then, maybe as a sort of silly craft to accompany these tales, paint rocks to look like monsters, since the Windigo is a monster made of rock!