Customer Reviews

The Pot of Wisdom: Ananse stories

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In The Pot Of Wisdom: Ananse Stories, Ghanaian author Adwoa Badoe draws upon the African Ananse folktale tradition to retell ten lively, witty, and entertaining stories about a trickster spider. Enhanced with the wonderfully illustrations of Malian artist Baba Wague Diakite, these Ananse folktales deal with issues of justice, money, food, marriage, vanity, and self-respect. Very highly recommended for young readers ages 7 and older, The Pot Of Wisdom will quickly become a favorite addition to any school or community library folklore/folktale collection!

This little book contains a fantastic, fun collection of Ananse stories that are as delightful as they are thought-provoking. The trickster tales are definitely worth sharing with any class that is studying African culture, folklore, storytelling, universal themes, etc. Black & White as well as color illustrations compliment the stories and add some unique cultural flavor.

Here's the list of included stories and my brief comment on each:

Why Ananse Lives On The Ceiling: This story reminds me of the Tar Baby tale! Ananse's sons try to outwit a thief and receive a surprise...guess who!

Ananse and the Feeding Pot: This is my favorite story. Greedy, jealous Ananse tries to grab some glory for himself after his son's successful adventure in acquiring food for the village.

Ananse Becomes the Owner of Stories: Ananse wants to be remembered and sung as one of the culture's great heroes. To do this, he sets out to possess all the best stories. (This story is very similar to "Anansi Does the Impossible: An Ashanti Tale" by Verna Aardema.)

Ananse, the Even-handed Judge: Ananse receives two invitations to two important life events. How can he fulfill both appointments? (This story is similar to "Anansi Goes to Lunch" by Bobby & Sherry Norfolk.)

Ananse, the Forgetful Guest: The wily spider must wriggle his way out of his own web of lies in order to save face and not offend his royal host.

The Mat Confidences: Ananse wins a prized wife through cleverness. Can he keep her when she learns the truth?

Ananse and the Pot of Wisdom: The Prideful spider learns a valuable lesson about bragging and self-importance.

Ananse and the Singing Cloak: Chameleon seeks to teach the greedy spider a lesson after Ananse lays designs on and captures his farm.

Why Pig Has A Short Snout: Ananse wriggles out of his debt to Pig.

Ananse and the Birds: The spider decides to learn to fly, but the surprised birds are so thrilled about him!

Of all the stories of Anansi, this collection is my favorite. The writing is excellent and engaging, the illustrations are beautiful and fun. I used this book as the basis of a series of stories that I told to a 2nd grade Waldorf class and they were absolutely taken with them. The fact that Amazon is offering this collection in hardback at such a great price makes this a definite MUST BUY!