Thematic Book List: Pourquoi Tales
A student reads a pourquoi tale independently.
Pourquoi tales, from the French word for why, are a genre of traditional literature. These folktales from around the world explain how natural phenomena came to be. When I taught a pourquoi tale unit to my students, I first prepared a collection of books to use for read-alouds, mentor texts, and for students' independent reading. Here are many of the books I collected. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but these are books that I found readily and inexpensively available for purchase online. I wanted stories from a wide range of cultures, and I also gathered some paired stories that explain the same natural phenomena from various cultural points-of-view.
Pourquoi Tale Anthologies
When the World Was Young: Creation and Pourquoi Tales by Margaret Mayo
How & Why Stories by Martha Hamilton
How the Animals Got Their Colors: Animal Myths from Around the World by Michael Rosen
Pourquoi Tale Single Story Picture Books
Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky by Elphinstone Dayrell (African)
Zomo the Rabbit: A Trickster Tale from West Africa by Gerald McDermott (West Africa)
How Chipmunk Got His Stripes by Joseph and James Bruhac (Native American)
How the Stars Fell into the Sky: A Navajo Legend by Jerrie Oughton
The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush by Tomie dePaola (Native American)
The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie dePaula (Comanche)
The Legend Of The Lady-Slipper by Lise Lunge-Larson and Margi Preus (Ojibwe)
The Green Frogs: A Korean Folktale by Yumi Heo (Korea)
Teaching Guides
Folktale Themes and Activities for Children, Volume 1: Pourquoi Tales by Anne Kraus