From School Library Journal
Grade 1-4–Three witches had already eaten a boy and girl's mother and father, so their grandmother took them to live with her far off in the woods. Grandmother goes for food and the witches come. Those witches! Their teeth were far longer than their lips! They send the children to fetch water in a sieve; the children end up in a tree, and the witches start to chop it down with broad axes. The girl sings Block eye, chip! and the wood chips fly back into the witches' eyes and blind them. The boy calls the dogs, but they are tied up at home. Grandma returns, but is so tired from her journey that she takes a nap. A snake wakes up the old woman, she looses the dogs, and all ends well. Thomas's adaptation of the tale is careful and clever–she doesn't leave out anything, and elaborates only by drawing engaging dialogue out of the more straightforward original narrative. Ringgold's naive-style paintings in dark rich hues suit the creepy story perfectly–boy, are those witches ugly! Her portrait of Hurston, laughing, at the end of the story, lends a lovely and reassuring visual coda. Short engaging notes add context and cite Hurston's original source. Read this aloud, and add it to any collection alongside the other recent Hurston adaptations for young audiences, including Mary E. Lyons's
Roy Makes a Car (S & S, 2005), Christopher Myers's
Lies and Other Tall Tales (HarperCollins, 2005), and Thomas's adaptation of
The Six Fools (HarperCollins, 2006).
–Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Gr. 2-4. Adapting a story from Hurston's 1930s folklore collection,
Every Tongue Got to Confess, Thomas makes a fast, fun, but also scary tale more accessible to young readers, while Ringgold's paintings, with thick black lines and vibrant colors, reflect both the comic exaggeration and the shivery action. Three hideous witches, with "teeth far longer than their lips," eat a boy and girl's parents and then catch the kids. The children escape and climb a tall tree. "Block eye, chip! Block eye, chip!" chants the girl, and the witches are blinded as they chop at the tree. The boy calls his three hounds to help, but they are tied up at home, and Grandma, who would free them, is sound asleep. Finally a great snake slaps Grandma awake, and she comes to the rescue with the voracious dogs. A full-page painting of Hurston, accompanied by a note about her work collecting African American folklore, concludes. For more of Hurston's stories, suggest
The Six Fools and
Lies and Other Tall Tales (both 2005); read this one in a cozy room.
Hazel RochmanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
