Abiyoyo Book and CD

From Publishers Weekly
Abiyoyo, the popular picture-book version of a storysong by Pete Seeger, illustrated by Michael Hays, turns 15 in October. To celebrate, Simon & Schuster is issuing a special anniversary edition of the book, which will come packaged with a CD recording of Seeger performing two different versions of his work in colorful storytelling style, one from 1956, the other, a live performance captured in 1991. Inspired by a South African folktale, the story of how a father and son vanquish the giant named Abiyoyo has long been a favorite and has been featured on PBS's Reading Rainbow. In addition to the audio bonus, Seeger fans have still more to cheer about: the original hardcover (without CD) will remain in print and a sequel, Abiyoyo Returns, will be released in October as well. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3 The words in this story-song flow along with the same ease and naturalness as Seeger's well-known telling on the recording, Abiyoyo and Other Story Songs (Folkways, 1967). There are only minor changes in this version, and the style reflects an oral rather than a literary tradition as Seeger switches from past to present tense in the text. Seeger combines his sense of humor and drama to turn disturbing events to high-spirited fun, as a father and son, turned out by their neighbors as troublemakers, use the very objects that bother peoplethe boy's clinking-clonking ukelele and the father's magic wandto obliviate Abiyoyo, monster on the loose, and so come back into community favor. The tale contains levels of meaning and powerful metaphors for those who choose to pursue them. If Hays' oil-on-linen illustrations are not always successful, it may be that they seem too studied when matched with Seeger's spontaneous, colloquial style. For example, the father is a magician in the simplest sense, yet Hays renders a "magic shop" in the background, with doves, rabbits, silk hatsnot the stuff of most folk tales. In peopling the village, too, he seems to be laboring to make a global statement, surrounding the black boy and his father with people of all races, places, beliefs. His Abiyoyo is a shadowy, looming figure against the blood-red sky, at first a faceless force, growing larger, and finally a towering glaring figure full of terrible witless energy. What is surprising about this Abiyoyo is the lack of earthiness. He is not sinew and muscle, but an automaton with a metallic gleam, the huge overalls he wears seeming an incongruous folksy touch. Still, there are also some very fine illustrations here, and this is a book worthy of attention. It merits a wide audience. Susan Powers, Berkeley Carroll Street School, BrooklynCopyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
Publishers Weekly The book is a triumph of storytelling and art.


Book Description
Once there was a little boy who played the ukelele. Wherever he'd go he'd play, Clink, clunk, clonk. His father was a magician. Wherever he'd go, he'd make things disappear, Zoop! Zoop! Soon the townspeople grew tired of the boy's noise and his father's tricks, and banished both of them to the edge of town. There they lived, until one day the terrible giant Abiyoyo appeared. He was as tall as a tree, and it was said that he could eat people up. Everyone was terrified, except the boy and his father, and they came up with a plan to save the town.... Pete Seeger's storysong, made up for his own children, finds its perfect match in Michael Hays's masterful paintings. As a special bonus, this edition includes a CD of Pete performing two different versions of "Abiyoyo." You'll love to follow and sing along as you listen to Pete tell this richly vivid and exciting story.


Card catalog description
Banished from the town for making mischief, a little boy and his father are welcomed back when they find a way to make the dreaded giant Abiyoyo disappear.


About the Author
Pete Seeger has been a storyteller for fifty years and has written such songs as "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "Turn, Turn, Turn," and, with Lee Hays, "If I Had a Hammer." Pete still lives with his wife, Toshi, near Beacon, New York.


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Abiyoyo is a terrible giant who threatens to eat livestock and people in one gulp. A boy with his ukulele sings to him. He gets the giant dancing and spinning so fast he falls down. Then the boy's magician father uses his magic wand to dispatch the monster. The illustrations depict a town populated with a multicultural melange of people and Abiyoyo is cast as an abstraction of everyone's fears. Reissue of 1986 book. 1994, (orig.


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