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Virginia Hamilton, Newbery Medal winner and recipient of the National Book Award and the Hans Christian Andersen Award, teams up with two-time Caldecott Medal winners, Leo and Diane Dillon, in this classic collection of American black folktales, winner of the Coretta Scott King Award. By turns droll, grisly, and spine-tingling, the 24 stories celebrate the indomitable human spirit, surviving under the most crushing circumstances of slavery. Traditionally, storytelling has helped people to push through sorrow and pain, especially when the stories are saturated with magic, mysticism, and fantasy. Bruh Rabbit, He Lion, Tar Baby, and other animals populate many of the stories. In others, John, the traditional trickster hero, outwits the slave owner time after time to win his freedom.
Included with this very special edition is a CD featuring the commanding voices of Hamilton and actor James Earl Jones. Eleven selections, including "The Peculiar Such Thing," "John and the Devil's Daughter," "A Wolf and Little Daughter," and "The People Could Fly," bring to life the rhythm and lyrical energy of Hamilton's text. Leo and Diane Dillon's strikingly beautiful black and white illustrations continue to mesmerize and haunt the reader. (All ages) --Emilie Coulter
From Publishers Weekly
This widely lauded anthology boasts stunning black-and-white artwork and stirringly told stories with such evocative titles as "The Beautiful Girl of the Moon Tower" and "Wiley, His Mama, and the Hairy Man." All ages. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 4-7 The well-known author here retells 24 black American folk tales in sure storytelling voice. In four groupings she presents seven animal tales (including a tar-baby variant); six fanciful ones (including "Wiley, His Mama, and the Hairy Man" and a tale of which Harper's Gunniwulf Dutton, 1967 is a variant); five supernatural tales (including variants of the Tailypo, John and the Deviland a wild cautionary tale, "Little Eight John"); and finally, six slave tales of freedom, closing with the moving title story. Depending on the sources, some of the tales use a modified dialect for flavor; one told with quite a few words of Gullah dialect has a glossary. All are beautifully readable. The book has a bibliography, and comments follow each tale, including one personal note of a family account involving one of her grandfathers. Two other collections of black folk tales, Courlander's Terrapin's Pot of Sense (Holt, 1957; o.p.) and Faulkner's The Days When the Animals Talked (Follett, 1977; o.p.) are both out of print. With the added attraction of 40 bordered full- and half-page illustrations by the Dillonswonderfully expressive paintings reproduced in black and whitethis collection should be snapped up. Ruth M. McConnell, San Antonio Public LibraryCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Publisher's Weekly
The stories are given full effect by Hamilton's use of colloquial language, evoking the artless entertainer relating the exploits of 'Bruh Rabbit' and other animal tricksters. The reader's emotional response, however, is to the artists' depictions and the author's narrative in 'The People Could Fly.'
From AudioFile
As performed by Andrew Barnes, this prize-winning text, compiled by the illustrious Virginia Hamilton, is a gem. The only discordant notes in the four hours are banjo, fiddle, and harmonica playing that are more Appalachian than black vernacular music. This trans-cendent audio work entertains a multiplicity of generations and races. It enables us to understand the ways a people survived slavery and the racism that followed, continued folkways, and maintained their sense of the ridiculous in the face of unbearable oppression. These stories, however, are not about race. They are about the triumph of the human spirit against all odds. P.R. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
Review
"A highly significant collection"
--The Horn Book Magazine, Starred
Book Description
"The well-known author retells 24 black American folk tales in sure
storytelling voice: animal tales, supernatural tales, fanciful and cautionary
tales, and slave tales of freedom. All are beautifully readable. With the added
attraction of 40 wonderfully expressive paintings by the Dillons, this
collection should be snapped up."--(starred) School Library Journal.
Card catalog description
Retold Afro-American folktales of animals, fantasy, the supernatural, and desire for freedom, born of the sorrow of the slaves, but passed on in hope.
From the Inside Flap
"The well-known author retells 24 black American folk tales in sure storytelling voice: animal tales, supernatural tales, fanciful and cautionary tales, and slave tales of freedom. All are beautifully readable. With the added attraction of 40 wonderfully expressive paintings by the Dillons, this collection should be snapped up."--(starred) School Library Journal.
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