From School Library Journal
Grade 2-6-As children flip through these pages filled with lime greens, bright oranges, and sunny yellows, images of the tropics jump out-African drums, Puerto Rican fishing villages with red-tiled roofs, and palms along the Malaysian seashore. The illustrations and the page borders feature stylized motifs from various tropical areas to emphasize the cultures represented and to demonstrate the richness of the traditional art of these countries. The book begins with a Beninese variation of the traditional folktale in which an unlikely person, in this case an old woman at the bottom of the river, rewards an unfavored but kind boy. His greedy rival then demands a similar reward and gains a well-deserved punishment. This satisfying tale is followed by a number of animal stories in which weak creatures are pitted against merciless and clever ones, and the outcomes vary. In fact, in one story from Antigua, a clever but unlikable Anansi is outwitted by an even more cunning guinea hen. For the most part, the selections come directly from the oral tradition and were collected by Mama. His retellings are graceful and fluid, perfect for reading aloud and for storytelling. His source notes are informative and his introduction is excellent.
Barbara Scotto, Michael Driscoll School, Brookline, MA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Barbara Scotto, Michael Driscoll School, Brookline, MA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Benin-born Mama follows up her collection Why Goats Smell Bad (1998) with this shorter, more child-friendly collection, which contains one story from the earlier book. Most of the eight tales emanate from African or Afro-Caribbean traditions, and six were transmitted to Mama by various storytellers. Without altering the overall continuity of style, their rough edges have been smoothed, with every change carefully noted in the exemplary source notes. The tone changes subtly to fit each tale--from sweet formality in "The Fisherman and His Dog," in which a faithful animal turns to stone waiting for its lost Puerto Rican master, to a lighter, verse-prose mix for "Leopard's Argument with Monkey," a variant of the widely told cautionary tale about naive prey discovering the worth of a trapped predator's promises. Illustrator Dierdre Hyde varies her artwork to evoke each story's origins, changing the running borders' motifs and giving the human figures distinctive garb in the stylized, brightly colored scenes. Wrapped in a visually appealing package, this is, for all its brevity, rich in humor, sorrow, and thought-provoking plot turns. John Peters
