Customer Reviews

The Story of Little Black Sambo

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was given this book as a child, Sambo was my hero because he outwitted the tiger, I still love pancakes. As an African American grand-parent, I feel no offense, it is more about bullies, no matter what color.

First of all I think that racism is learned. I found nothing wrong with this story and in fact it was one of my favorites as a kid. Many a time you would find us playing tigers running around a tree and melting into butter. To me, it is a story about a little black boy who has two parents who love him very much and give him gifts. The tigers try to eat him, he gives them his clothes and then, while they're fighting, he gets them back. I loved how the tigers turned to butter and Sambo got to eat 169 pancakes! Wow, a huge stack of pancakes loaded with freshly melted butter. I know my kids would love that. I asked my kids 12 and 10 what they thought of the story. Did they think it was mean to black people. We all agreed that it was a good story and could be written with any race and still be good. As for their names-since we haven't studied the history of how hated dark skinned people across the world have been in such depth, they don't mean a thing to us. Why wait 100 years to read the story just because some people can't get over the past? I hope you'll read the book and enjoy it with your children-that's what it was written for-and when you're done go make some pancakes together:)

This children story was banned in some places because they claimed it was too racist for publication and to read to the kids. After all the hype, I'd decided to read it myself and amazingly enough, I have no idea how they could come up with the idea the book was racist, because all it is, is just a children story and it's quite harmless to read really.

This is a story about a little black boy called Little Black Sambo, the son of Jumbo and Mumbo, who gave all his beautiful new clothes away to the Tigers so they won't eat them. Little Black Sambo practically gave away all his clothes to the Tigers, filling the tigers with pride. With all these pride, trouble it bound to happened. The tiger ended up tryign to over power each other but ended up transforming in butter in which Sambo's parents made into pancakes and they ended up feeling all fulled.

Overall, it is more about bullies rather than touching the issues of racisms. This should be read, not banned by the irresponsible book ban-ners.

what a lovely book! i remembered having it read to me as a child, but was unaware that you could still buy a copy.

the illustrations are beautiful. i am going to enjoy reading it to my 5 yr old granddaughter!

I ordered this for my greatgrandson. It was exactly as I remembered reading to my children. My greatgrandson loves it. He is only two years old.

This was my favorite childhood story. I too was fascinated by the bright colored illustrations - bright colored clothing that wasn't part of my culture. There is a wonderful lesson to use cleverness to overcome bullies. It went out of print at the time I expected my first child. I hunted and hunted until a rare-book store found me a copy, a copy my daughter still treasures. This book doesn't teach racism. Racists keep that ugliness alive. And thank you to the grandmother that pointed out that children of all races enjoy this tale.

I fondly recall this story from childhood. There even used to be a restaurant (that served pancakes, no less!) with illustrations from the story. For those who claim the book is racist, please note that Sambo is derived from the ancient Sanskrit word SHAMBO, an epithet of Lord Shiva (Shiva Shambo means Shiva the Benevolent). The tiger symbolism also has a strong link to Shiva. The story and name itself is in no way racist -- would you ban Nietzsche because members of the Nazi party later abused his work?

This is a great book I remember this from when I was little I loved it them and still do.

An excellent story that was read to me and I read as a child and then read to my children and grandchild. If anyone sees racism in this book, they probably see ufo's and tinkerbell in their back yard...

This is racist trash and I find myself alternately appalled and amused by the bizarrely arrogant defense of such insulting tripe, brimming with racial slander. These sentiments are quite revealing, I hope you are proud of yourselves.