Fourteen creation myths from ten of the indigenous peoples of South America are collected in Natalia Belting's Moon Was Tired of Walking on Air, which title is taken from the first selection. Here are explanations of how the world came to be, how people came to be in the world, and how people and animals came to look the way they do. Will Hillenbrand - a prolific picture-book illustrator whose folkloric projects include the artwork for Verna Aardema's Traveling to Tondo - creates a fantastic visual landscape to accompany the tales, with a deep, earth-toned palette, and sweeping lines that convey motion and magic.

The myths themselves are fascinating and, without exception, previously unknown to me. Moon himself is the creator, in the titular Moon Was Tired of Walking on Air, which comes from the Chorote people of Argentina, and follows its hero as he makes the land, in order to have something firm to walk upon. Other Chorote selections include What Happened When Fox Opened the Bottle Tree, in which fox brings water to the land, directing the course of the rivers; and Fox and the Parakeet Women, in which Fox provides a group of men with wives, by luring the parakeet women down from their home in the sky.

The Traveling Sky Baskets, a tale from the Apanyekra people of northeastern Brazil, sees the sun and moon traveling in celestial baskets, in order to avoid burning or freezing the earth; while Why Sun Has a Headdress and Moon Has None is an explanation - from the Ramkokamekra people, also of northeastern Brazil - of the solar corona. Daughter of Rain is a tale from the Cayapo (Kayapo) people of Brazil's Mato Grosso state, and explains how the people - through the marriage of one of their men to Nyo-bog-ti, daughter of Rain - gained the ability to raise crops. What Happened When Armadillo Dug a Hole in the Sky is another Cayapo myth, explaining how people first came to live on earth.

Belting also includes two selections from the "Selkam" people (could she mean the Selknam, of Tierra del Fuego?): Why Rainbow Is Bent, which tells of a struggle between South and North that resulted in Rainbow becoming curved; and The Ancestors Are All Around Us, which explains the relationship between people, and the creatures and objects around them. Why Orekeke Wrestled Tornado is a heroic myth from the Tehuelces people of Patagonia, in which the eponymous Orekeke fights Tornado, in order to spare his people. Other selections include: Ghosts and Souls, an explanation from the Tapirape people of Brazil, as to what happens to the spirit after death; Worlds Above, Worlds Below, from the Toba people of Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay, which sets out the various "levels" of the world; and How Averiri Made the Night and the Seasons, from the Campas people of Peru, in which Averiri used music to shape the world. Finally, there is How the Birds Got New Beaks and Man Got Teeth, from the Bororo people of Brazil, which explains how both birds and humans are able to break open their food.

This book was a little difficult for me to rate, because while I was wildly enthusiastic at the idea of a collection of South American mythology - having observed a real dearth of English-language titles devoted to the folklore of that part of the world - I was distinctly underwhelmed by Belting's retelling, which alternated between prose and poetry. I appreciated the fact that she collected these stories at all, but wished she had included more information about the various peoples from which they came, as well as the sources she used. I give this four stars for content, and two for narrative - hence the three stars. Meanwhile, the hunt for good titles devoted to South American folklore and mythology continues... ( )