Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 3^-6. Storyteller Walker has compiled a book of his favorite trickster tales from around the world. Cleverness triumphs in each of the nine stories included. Whether it's a tale about Anansi finding a way to fill the king's impossible request, a Jack tale in which a wizard is outsmarted, or a story about a traveler who makes soup from a nail, someone always gets the better of someone else. Among other stories are a Brer Rabbit tale and a Bengali Red Riding Hood story in which an old woman outwits a fox. The collection samples trickster tales of many cultures, with Walker's language and style maintaining the flavor of the oral tradition. The stories are perfect for reading aloud, and the amusing illustrations contributed by Claudio Munoz are suited for one-on-one sharing. Included are helpful source notes for each story. --Helen Rosenberg
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-In a storyteller's voice complete with asides and confidences directed toward listeners, Walker retells nine trickster tales. Rather than giving historical sources, the reteller has noted the country or culture of origin under each title. His source notes indicate when a version of the story was found in an anthology or when and where he first heard it. As a result, the tellings lack any specificity that might reveal the ethnicity of the original source. The "Tops and Bottoms" theme appears here as a Brer Rabbit tale and "The Mullah Nasrudin" is unspecified in the notes but is identified as Turkish under the title. Energetic watercolor-over-black-line drawings with just enough detail to hold children's attention decorate every page. Scholarship aside, the stories tell well and the characters foil death, wizards, the rich, the greedy, and one another, escaping with their lives, their goods, or their humility intact.-Susan Hepler, Burgundy Farm Country Day School, Alexandria, VA (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.
