The Legend of the Bluebonnet
Retold & Illustrated by: Tomie DePaola
Multicultural

The Legend of the Bluebonnet is a heart felt story about a little girl being selfless. The story begins by describing a Comanche tribe that is in the middle of a drought. They have had little to no rainfall and their land was dying as well as many people in the land. The story opens with dancers dancing and pleading with the “Great Spirits” to bring rain to the land. For three days the danced but their cries were not answered. Then She-Who-Is-Alone is introduced as she sits with her treasured doll watching the dancers. She is a young girl who has lost her parents and grandparents and all she has left is a doll from them. She loves this doll more than anything and she begins to tell the doll all about how the Shaman will be back soon from talking with the Great Spirits and that they will know what has to be done to have the rain come back and fill the land. Finally the Shaman return and they announce that the Great Spirits have declared the tribe a selfish people and they will restore the land once an appropriate sacrifice is offered. She-Who-Is-Alone listens as they announce that the sacrifice must be a burnt offering of the most valued possession among them. Many of the adults begin to think that surely their possessions are not what are being asked for, but She-Who-Is-Alone knows exactly what she must do. She waits until night and then heads up to the mountain and offers her doll as the sacrifice, then she falls asleep. As she awakes in the morning she sees the fields are full of bluebonnets and soon a warm rain comes. The tribe renames her, One-Who-Dearly-Loved-Her-People, and the lands of Texas to this day bloom with the bluebonnet.


Although I do not hold to the same system of beliefs, I do think this book shares an important message of selflessness. I would use this book in my classroom for students from 3rd-5th grade. I would teach it as the legend that it is, not as fact, and use this as an example of the importance of caring about others.

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