1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
West Indian reader, January 28, 2008
This review is from: West Indian Folk-tales (Oxford Myths and Legends) (Paperback)
What the above poster may not know is that Anansi stories are very much a part of West Indian culture. Seeing as how the West Indies were created by the blood of African slaves this only makes sense. That said, this book is 100% full of West Indian folklore. Enjoy!
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sir Philip Sherlock, a Wonderful Story-Teller, May 4, 2011
This review is from: West Indian Folk-tales (Oxford Myths and Legends) (Paperback)
In the late 1960s, when I was eight years old, we vacationed in Jamaica at Christmas-time, and my father got me a hardcover copy of this book for the holiday. I read it many times as a child, and long years later read some of the stories to my daughter's kindergarten class in New York City. As I was, the children were captivated by naughty Anansi, and they clamored for more.
I love these old stories, and I find the vitality and natural voice of the storytelling to be thoroughly engaging and still delightful.
Sir Philip Sherlock was a remarkable man of great accomplishments as a writer, scholar, and educator, and his conception of these stories is insightful. He retains their quality as West Indian, the African roots are rich, but above all they are universal and human. My daughter's class in the East Village was as diverse as could be, with children of Caribbean, Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese, Latin American, African, white and black American, and mixed parentage, and they were all spellbound by the stories. I am going to introduce this book as a reading experience and conversation nucleus to my adult ESL students, who are from all around the world, and I expect much delight in the stories and pleasure in exposure to new culture(s) to ensue. (My African students know Anansi tales already, but don't yet realize that the stories live in the West Indies, too!)
For me, this is a long-treasured book, one that I have shared with my own child, and that I think will delight and enrich anyone who reads it.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Final Grade: 83%, March 19, 2007
This review is from: West Indian Folk-tales (Oxford Myths and Legends) (Paperback)
With the exception of the first few stories, which are interesting legends that originate with the Native Americans of the Caribbean, all of the other stories are of Akan origin (southern and central Ghana and East Ivory Coast)and deal entirely with the legendary spider, Anance, who is a prominate character in Akan literature.
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