As promised, some more from Guyanese author John Agard today! (See yesterday's post for his Caribbean proverbs and Calypso Alphabet.) To start things off, here is his version of a famous African and Diaspora trickster tale: Brer Rabbit: The Great Tug-o-War.
Of course there are no rhinos or hippos in Guyana, but the tug-of-war story has lived on through the African traditions at the heart of African Diaspora storytelling.
The illustrations are by Korky Paul, a children's book illustrator born in Zimbabwe and now based in the U.K. (More at his website.) He makes great use of two-page spreads to convey the back-and-forth of the tricky tug of war:
I also wanted to mention this lovely book of nursery rhyme poetry by Agard and his partner, Grace Nichols (more about her work at Wikipedia), who is also from Guyana: No Hickory, No Dickory, No Dock: A Collection of Caribbean Nursery Rhymes.
The illustrations are by Penny Dann, and you can see from this image that there is a mix of traditional Caribbean rhymes and new rhymes by Agard and Nichols in the book; on this two-page spread Jawbone on the Wall is a traditional rhyme, while Cow Chat is a new one from Agard.
Plus here's another fun one from Agard: The Emperor's Dan-Dan.
This is a retelling of the famous story of the emperor's new clothes... but Caribbean-style, with ANANSI as a character: the emperor's tailor is none other than Anansi Spiderman! The illustrations are by Alison Forsythe; look closely and you'll see the spider legs behind Anansi's back:
Isn't that all look great? And I'll be back with yet more from John Agard tomorrow too!
by John Agard
by John Agard and Grace Nichols
by John Agard
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