Anansi and the Talking Melon

Elephant works industriously in his garden while that trickster spider Anansi watches, yearning after the melons he is too lazy to cultivate himself. When Elephant goes inside for a rest, Anansi eats his way into the ripest melon, but gorges so much that he is too fat to get out again. Convincing Elephant that his voice is that of the melon, that the melon can in fact talk, the trickster is carried along to the king, with a growing procession of animals accompanying him on his journey. When his sarcasm earns the king's ire, the melon is smashed and Anansi released...

Anansi and the Talking Melon is the second picture-book about this famous West African trickster figure that I have read from author Eric A. Kimmel and illustrator Janet show more Stevens, following upon their Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock. It pairs an amusing cumulative tale with expressive artwork that perfectly captures the humor of the story. The ending here, in which Elephant vows never to listen to talking melons again, only for Anansi, hidden inside a banana he is eating, to commend his choice, had me laughing out loud. It was such a pleasant and amusing ending to the story that I raised my rating from three to four stars. My only criticism of the book, and it is the same I made for Kimmel and Stevens' earlier book, is that no source material is given for this retelling, something I really look for in folkloric works. Recommended to Anansi fans, and to folklore lovers in general. show less

The few Anansi folktales that I have read are some are the quirkiest books I’ve read in a while. This one is particular is fairly strange but nothing compared to the other I’m reviewing later. This is so great for younger readers for how differently these are retold. Anansi is a great character for younger kids to live through, especially considering how flawed he is as a person. He isn’t necessarily bad, but mischievous and kids would be able to tell that he isn’t the greatest role model. I would defiantly recommend this to children.

Eric Kimmel’s comical retelling of West African trickster tale, Anansi and the Talking Melon, is ideal material for story time read alouds. The insolent Anansi entertains himself by tricking all the animals into thinking he is the voice of a talking melon. As each animal has a joke made at their expense, they assemble to present the talking melon to the king monkey. When the melon insults the king with a real humdinger, the melon gets thrown and broken, freeing Anansi to tease again. The illustrations by Janet Stevens add to the humor of the story with outraged expressions of the offended animals. This Anansi tale would be a welcome addition to any Anansi folklore collection

Anansi, the spider, has got some tricks up his sleeve when he decides to mess with an elephant one day. Anansi decided he was going to eat one of the elephants melons because they looked so good and he was too lazy to plant one of his own. However, after Anansi got into the melon he could not get out. Anansi tricked all of the others in town into thinking the elephant had a talking melon, but he was just having fun messing with everyone. This story was a great story to read, and students would probably get a good laugh out of it. This book could also open up discussions about right and wrong, and if the students thought what Anansi did was right or. wrong. Anansi never gets punished in the end, but maybe he should for the trick he show more played on everyone. Overall, it was a great book and I would absolutely read it to a class of students. show less

Anansi drops into Elelphant's melon patch, takes a thorn and pokes a hole in a ripe, juicy melon. He squeezes himself inside and starts eating. When he is full and round-bellied, he realizes he's too fat to get back out. So he waits to get thin again. When Elephant comes in to work in the patch, Anansi decides to have some fun with him. He talks to Elelphant. Elelphant takes the talking melon and runs to show it to the King. Along the way, he impresses his friends who all join him. The King cannot believe a melon can talk and tosses it aside. The melon rolls all the way back to Elephant's house and Anansi is freed. He decides he is hungry again and climbs onto the banana tree. Ever the trickster, Anansi once again leads Elephant to show more believe that fruit can talk. The story first appeared in Spider: The Magazine for Children. Children and adults will both enjoy the illustrations and humor in the talking fruits. show less

Anansi and the Talking Melon
Bryan O’Keeffe

This book was extremely cute and I enjoyed reading this book a lot. The first thing that caught my eye was the cover. It is a giant elephant holding a melon with a spider on top. At first I thought Anansi was going to be the Elephant not the spider. Of course I was wrong but that was stated on the first page. The other thing that caught my eye were the illustrations. I always like a book with good illustrations. I feel as if they either make or break a book. These illustrations made the book. With the story having talking insects and animals as the main characters the illustrations certainly helped make the characters be even more believable. The story though helped as well because all of the show more animals had great personalities. That was obvious when the spider Anansi or the “talking melon” would insult the animals because they did not believe the melon could talk. One insult was, “Warthog started to laugh. ‘A talking melon? Why that’s as ridiculous as…’ ‘… a handsome warthog.’ said the melon. Warthog got so angry he shook all over.” Having conflicts as these and the reactions seem like they would actually happen helps make the characters believable and helps make the story really enjoyable.
The plot was well organized and was written really well. Everything flowed together nicely as the Elephant traveled to see the King; going from animal to animal to show the talking melon. The point of view is once again in the third person point of view. Any other and the story might not have be as engaging. The message of this book kind of gets a little muddied in the middle of the story. I feel once the Elephant brings the melon to the King does the message become clear again; never believe everything you hear until you see it for yourself. show less

I enjoyed reading this book. It is very humorous as the ant is tricking all the other animals into thinking the melon is talking. The plot draws out each of the animals being tricked into believing the melon truly talks. I also like the bright, colorful illustrations and the different perspectives the images have. On one page the illustration is created as if you were looking over top into the melon. This drew me into the story. I think the big message is to not believe everything you hear.