A Story, a Story

Caldecott winner, 1971
An African tale retold, explaining about the Ananse stories and how they came to be.

An African folktale with text and illustrations that work together to tell the story. The illustrations effectively show Ananse weakness as an old man that causes the Sky God to make a deal with him. Ananse strength came from his mind. This story is well told and is a great example of a folktale. ( )

Caldecott Medal, 1971

I really like the wood-cut illustrations in this one too. The story of how we got stories, and also a story about Ananse. ( )

This is an African story about Ananse, the "spider man," and how "spider stories" began. One day the Spider man wanted to buy stories from Nyame, “the Sky God.” After weaving a web up to the sky, he asked Nyame for his stories, but Nyame would only give them to Ananse for a price; Osebo the leopard, Mmboro the hornet, and Mmoatia the fairy. After he left, Ananse made traps, tricked, and captured each the leopard, hornet, and fairy. After paying the price for Nyame's stories, Nyame gave the stories to Ananse, and said they belonged to him and would be called Spider stories. ( )

A very interesting African tale with colorful pictures. Kids will love the images and the newness of some of the elements. ( )