Dancing Otters and Clever Coyotes

July 15, 2009
These brightly colored volumes indicate conscious engagement with the natural world as a means toward spiritual insight or revelation. "Dancing Otters", an expanded and updated version of "Animal Energies" (1992), is a beautifully designed book on Native American ways of understanding 58 animals and the lessons we might learn from their examples. The text is arranged by animal, each with a "behavior and habitat" description, as well as a "message" and a "warning." While the behaviors seem accurate and the messages reasonable, many of the warnings seem strained ("Earthworm's warning: Don't bury your feelings"). Rhoads's personal and idiosyncratic book mixes short essays, poems, and many photographs of beloved animals and nature scenes to help the reader "find the songbird in [the] heart." VERDICT Both of these books, while limited in scope, will find their readers among followers of Native American or Earth-centered spirituality.

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