West African Trickster Tales (Oxford Myths and Legends) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192741721 ISBN 13: 9780192741721

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1994

Synopsis

This lively collection comes from West Africa, a place "where stories grow on trees." Here are the famous tricksters: Hare, Tortoise, and the greatest of them all--Ananse the spider. The stories are full of larger-than-life characters and situations, and include the tale of how Ananse got his thin waist, how Crocodile learnt his lesson, and how Monkey managed not to get eaten by Shark.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 4-6?A collection of 13 trickster tales, unsuccessfully adapted and retold to reflect modern culture and language and western lifestyles. In "A Debt Made Profit," Bennett's phrasing, "Bang! Bang! Bang! Again came Monkey's knocks, like a machine gun," is used to give emphasis to the intensity of the knock. Monkey's level of anger is emphasized with the line "If he had been a bomb, he would have exploded on the spot." In "Wind and Stick Land Leuk the Hare Some Blows," blows fall "...one after the other just like in a kung-fu film" and "Wind drove past in his air bus, Zephyr 504 GL with built-in air-conditioning." Bennett's creative use of language to retell traditional West African folklore compromises the cultural purpose and period of the original tellings.?Barbara Osborne Williams, Queens Borough Public Library, Jamaica, NY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0192741721
• ISBN 13: 9780192741721
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144