The Market Lady and the Mango Tree

A sly merchant gets rich when she devises a contraption for collecting mangos, but a dream teachs her a lesson about greed

Kindergarten-Grade 3-A cautionary tale about the dangers of making a profit from what nature provides free of charge. In a village in West Africa, Market Lady, a keen business woman of ample girth, sits under the shade of a mango tree and sells her wares-mangoes, melons, coconuts, sugar-dipped dates. The children who have no money to buy food are accustomed to eating the mangoes when they fall to the ground. In her greed and selfishness, Market Lady rigs a net on the tree and catches the fruit as it falls. This contraption enables her to corner the market and to make so much money that she is able to buy a Mercedes Benz. But her sleep is not peaceful, and one night a dream causes her to allow the hungry children to eat the mangoes to their heart's content. Mary Watson's paintings are lovely, dramatic, and bold in design. The village and the main character come vividly to life. The text itself has a flowing, rhythmic quality that children should love. This is certainly a different kind of story, and it's one that many readers will enjoy.
Carol Jones Collins, Montclair Kimberley Academy, NJ
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

With its memorable title character (inspired by a woman Pete Watson met while serving in the Peace Corps in West Africa) this exuberant tale, a first book by a husband-and-wife team, fits its jacket-flap description as an "original fable." It is, indeed, a fresh, spunky tale with a timeless message, lyrically narrated and deftly illustrated with realistic, warmly hued paintings. Market Lady, sensing an opportunity for easy profits, attempts to defy custom ("Everyone knew that the law of the tree is that once they have fallen, mangoes are free"). After she fashions "mango traps," the fruit drops right into her ample lap, allowing her a mango monopoly. With the money she makes from her "poaching and plunder," the greedy merchant buys a Mercedes Benz, in which she transports her goods (now priced too high for mere marketgoers) to wealthy jellymakers at a rustic factory. After she has a dream about other plunderers--huge, ravenous hippos that raid her caravan and drive her into a muddy river--Market Lady sees the evil of her ways. The final page shows the reformed rogue surrounded by children, sharing not just her mangoes, but her sound advice: "You can't earn a living by selling what's free." Ages 4-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Sitting solid and capable amid her produce, ``Market Lady'' schemes: she'll capture the mangoes on the tree above her before they fall to the ground--where by custom they would be fair prey for the eager children flocking around her stall. Installing her nets on other trees as well, she corners the mango market and sells enough to buy herself a Mercedes. Then, a nightmare concerning greedy hippos that devour her mangoes and threaten her own safety results in a Scrooge-like change of heart: ``You can't earn a living by selling what's free,'' she concludes. Pete Watson, who bases his protagonist on ``Mama Benz,'' a merchant he encountered while serving in the Peace Corps in Benin, holds attention with his brisk pacing and amusing details; his wife's boldly rendered paintings are full of vigor and good humor. For both, a strong debut. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ages 5-8. There's a pleasant, unobtrusive rhythm to the language used in this story set in West Africa, in which greed and arrogance give way to common sense and simple goodness. Realizing that the village children are waiting for sweet fruit to fall from the tree rather than buying her wares, the shrewd, willful Market Lady, who sits "big in the cool shade of a mango tree," strings a net to trap the fruit for herself. She becomes rich from her venture, but she eventually learns, in a very bad dream, that "you can't earn a living by selling what's free." Inspired by a merchant, known as Mama Benz, whom Pete Watson met while serving in the Peace Corps in Africa, the story is a spirited, authentically flavored morality tale that hints at the contradictions in both modern Africa and the human condition. In deep, rich colors, the expressive paintings capture the humor of the tale and make the story fun as well as meaningful. Stephanie Zvirin