Customer Reviews

African American Folktales: Stories from Black Traditions in the New World (Pantheon Fairy Tale & Folklore Library)

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As I am of African descent I can safely say that never before has reading children's literature been so exciting. This compendium of over one hundred riveting tales invites the reader into a world of mysicism and magic. The characters portrayed are, for the mostpart, very life-like and easily idendified with. The descriptions in this book provide the reader with vivid and very beautiful images of America and the islands that surround it. The diversity of the collection means that the reader is all the time finding out and learning more and more about different cultures and traditions. I would recommend this book very highly to all school teachers as it is an excellent read and it provides a wealth of knowledge about the Afro-American peoples.

I agree with the previous reviewer - some of these tales are not suitable for children. But that can be said of many of the Grimm's fairy tales. Fairy tales and folktales are not for the faint of heart. They can be quite harsh - even gruesome.

That said, this is a wonderful and scholarly collection of African-American tales. These tales have a different feel and cadence from the better known European tales. I love them for their novelty.

The book is divided into different sections - if memory serves me - trickster tales, Carribean, Creole, and many, many more... Unfortunately I've lost my copy, I wish I could remember better. I am here now to replace it.

I was very excited to find this book, as I have read other works by Roger Abrahams and absolutely loved them. Unfortunately, however, upon reading an excerpt of the book I discovered that one of the stories contained a tale in which a man, in his attemps to assert his superiority over a woman, repeatedly beats her. While I am not sure of what age bracket this book is meant for, the fact that that story was included, regardless of it folkoric accuracy, is very shocking. I'm very dissapointed.