Mouse Woman and the Vanished Princesses

Book excerpt: These legends of the Haida people of British Columbia feature the wise and enterprising Mouse Woman, a narnauk -- a supernatural human/animal shape-shifter. Taking the form of both a mouse and a grandmother, Mouse Woman's role is to keep order between other narnauks and humans. Both a teacher and a nurturer, the ever-watchful Mouse Woman keeps a particularly close eye on the princesses of the great clans of the Northwest Coast, who carry the royal blood line. From them all future chiefs would descend. Though well protected, these princesses are sometimes lured away and spirited off by such diverse things as a bear, a magic plume, and gigantic snails. Mouse Woman must use tact and her own forms of trickery to set things right. This reissue of the original 1976 text features the striking black-and-white line drawings of Douglas Tait. With a new and more contemporary look, these compelling stories appeal to both longtime Christie Harris fans and new readers, young and old.