The Blue Jackal 

retold and illustrated by Mehilli Gobhai

Fable, Multicultural Fiction

This retelling of the ancient Indian fable, The Blue Jackal, is a story that has been passed down in Indian culture since 200 B.C. The story is a tale of Long Howl, a Jackal who is scared of many of the other animals and spends a lot of time hiding by himself. However, his one great quality is his long and loud howl.  One day he decides to go into the village marketplace to look for some food.  The village dogs sniff the Jackal hiding in the thicket and chase him into a vat of indigo dye.  The story progresses as each page is turned. The author chooses to illustrate the pages from the Jackal's perspective in black and white and the pages from the others' perspective as beautifully colored illustrations.   The Jackal is worshipped as King by the other animals because they fear his beautiful coat.  The other Jackals leave the forest because they do not want to have another Jackal as their King. One night, Long Howl hears the other Jackals in the distance howling, Long Howl cannot resist and howls a great big howl at the moon.  The other animals realize he his nothing more than a Jackal and chase him out of the forest.  I would use this story in my classroom to share a message: that you should be humbly confident in who you are and to not try to be someone you are not.  Another great use of this book would be to introduce Indian culture to the classroom.  Throughout the book the author includes Indian words within the text and at the end of the book offers a Indian vocabulary page.  I would place this book in my classroom library in the multicultural section because it allows children to step into another culture and learn valuable lessons along the way.