COYOTE STEALS THE BLANKET

``I go where I want, I do what I want, and I take what I want,'' boasts Coyote; when Hummingbird warns him not to touch the blankets draped over desert rocks, he seizes one for a coat. ``Rumble, rumble—the huge, round rock follows him, threatening to crush him each time he rests. Mule Deer and Big Horn Sheep try to stop it, but only break their antlers and hooves. Hummingbird scolds: `There is a spirit in the rock...You have taken what does not belong to you.''' After the rock crushes his tail, Coyote finally gives its blanket back and tenderhearted Hummingbird mends his tail. Still, like Iktomi, Coyote will never learn... Stevens's briskly informal, well-honed telling is beautifully complemented by illustrations where the subtly caricatured Coyote—rendered, in vibrant detail, as irrepressibly arrogant yet appealing—makes his wily way across a more impressionistic landscape of desert cliffs beneath a brilliant sky whose color is echoed in the blanket's predominant blues. An outstanding setting for a lively, sagacious, well-sourced tale. (Folklore/Picture book. 4-10)