Review by Booklist Review
Ages 6-8. In 1986 storyteller and songwriter Seeger retold the South African folktale of the troublesome giant Abiyoyo who gobbled up villagers, and the outcast father and son who found a way to make him disappear. In this book, coauthored by writer and poet Jacobs, the fearsome monster is revived, for a new generation. When a cycle of spring flooding and summer drought threatens the safety of the village, the townspeople decide to tame the waters by building a dam. A huge boulder brings the hopeful plan to a halt, until a young girl petitions her father and grandfather to call Abiyoyo back. If we feed Abiyoyo's hunger with good food, she reasons, he won't need to eat villagers and he can help us move the enormous rock. The child's faith and determination guide the community, and the once-banished monster becomes a new citizen. A tribute to tolerance.--Kelly Milner Halls
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-Fifteen years after the publication of Pete Seeger's Abiyoyo (S & S, 1986), the giant returns. This time, the townspeople are cutting down all the trees to build houses, and flooding results when the rains come. When they try to build a dam and run into a boulder nobody can move, the granddaughter of the magician responsible for Abiyoyo's previous disappearance convinces him to magic the big guy back. When the giant reappears in all his slobbery, stinking wonder, roaring for food, the townspeople rush to feed him. The little girl, in a ploy to get him to move the boulder, asks him if he is strong enough to do it, and he hurls it several hundred feet away. The villagers rejoice and everyone sings the now-famous song, faster and faster until, exhausted, the giant falls asleep. But they soon discover that Abiyoyo's feat has crushed the magic wand that would zap him away again, and the local folks must find a way to coexist peacefully with him. Seeger teaches several lessons in this clever if somewhat forced tale: the value of the environment, of sharing, and of the need to live with whatever "giants" are in one's life. Hays's colorful illustrations are just as wonderful as in the original tale, with the jagged-edged, overpowering monster oozing attitude from every pore. For those who felt it unfair of the town to zap away what they feared in the original book, this second installment will be a just and happy ending.-Jane Marino, Scarsdale Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Preschool, Primary) A little town is in trouble: a dearth of trees has led to droughts and floods. The townspeople decide to create a dam to hold the spring rains, but an enormous boulder hinders their digging. A young girl insists that this is a job for AbiyoyoÑthe giant that her father and grandfather contended with years earlier. In this sequel to Abiyoyo, GrandpaÕs magic wand again brings to life the notorious giantÑravenous, odorous, and dunderheaded as ever. After he is plied with food, he moves the boulder, but his appetite returns with a vengeance. The entire town begins chanting his theme song (musical notation provided), and he dances himself into a state of exhaustion. But this isnÕt the end of Abiyoyo: since GrandpaÕs magic wand has broken in the mayhem, the townsfolk must learn to live with their former nemesis. The story is more than an environmentalist tract or an up-with-music primerÑitÕs about the value of kindness, diplomacy, and compromise. As Seeger notes on the bookÕs jacket: ÒIn the long run, every community must learn to manage its giants, whoever and whatever they might be.Ó Seeger also sheepishly acknowledges a hole in the bookÕs plot, but, like its predecessor, this story ultimately succeeds by dint of its big-hearted, breathless enthusiasm. The gauzy, rainbow-hued illustrations, featuring a (somewhat overdeterminedly) multiethnic, multigenerational cast, provide a rollicking backdrop against which the bookÕs themes play out. nell d. beram From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they've cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam-but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just "Zoop Zoop" him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo's destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: "every community must learn to manage its giants." Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
