Children of Wax: African Folk Tales (International Folk Tales) - Softcover

McCall Smith, Alexander

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1566563143 ISBN 13: 9781566563147

Publisher: Interlink Pub Group Inc, 1999

Synopsis

Book by Smith, Alexander McCall

About this title

From Library Journal:

These recently collected tales are emphatically not children's pabulum: they are full of danger, violence, and death. There is a near-obsession with food and water, hunger and thirst. Although anthropomorphic animals and other supernatural elements figure here, they are taken for granted. The dominant note is a vivid--even stark--realism. Behaviors most strongly condemned in the narratives are fickleness, foolish trust, greed, and overreaching, but selfish and even treacherous acts sometimes go unpunished. (One story describes a cruel revenge worthy of a 16th-century melodrama.) There is an apparently unironic account of the evolution of baboons from humans. While folktales from West Africa are familiar to many, this collection may give greater currency to the traditional tales of Matabeleland in Zimbabwe.
- Patricia Dooley, Univ. of Washington Lib. Sch., Seattle
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

One of two collections initiating the ``International Folk Tale'' series. These 27 stories, collected in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe, and briskly rendered from the author's own transcriptions, are evocative, involving narratives that reveal much about the culture from which they spring. Both this collection and The Sun Maiden and the Crescent Moon (Siberian folk tales as told by James Riordan) include introductions discussing the role of folk tales in their respective societies and retell some of them with authenticity as the principle priority. Thus both books are of primary interest to storytellers rather than to children, though older children will find much that is interesting and original here. A secondary purchase for children's use; a treasure trove for all those who value folk literature presented with respect and scrupulous care. (Folklore. 12+) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Interlink Pub Group Inc
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1566563143
• ISBN 13: 9781566563147
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 119