African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Kallaloo!

Following up on the Monday post and Tuesday post about Phillis Gershator, I wanted to share a book today that she co-wrote with her husband, David Gershator: it's a very creative adaptation of the folktale "Stone Soup" relocated to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands: Kallaloo! A Caribbean Tale.

The illustrations are by Diane Greenseid.

As the authors explain, the plot of the story is taken from a European folktale (read more about that at Wikipedia), but with Caribbean details throughout: "Set in the West Indies and featuring the most popular soup of the region, our story was inspired by the classic tale "Stone Soup." Kallaloo is a Caribbean gumbo, a thick green soup originally made with the leaves of the kallaloo, a ground-growing vine (spinach makes a good substitute). The words kallaloo and gumbo are African in origin. Fungee (pronounced FOON-gee) is the local name for cornmeal mush."

There is even a recipe in the back of the book (using spinach; if you are curious about Caribbean kallaloo, you can read more about that at Wikipedia):

There are many examples of European folktales being retold in creative new ways in the Caribbean, and this story by the Gershators carries on that tradition of creative adaptation: not just the food has changed, but so has the stone — now it is a seashell!

When researching this post, I was sad to learn that David Gershator died in December of 2021; you can read more about him at his website: David Gershator, 1937-2021. 

As you might have guessed from the name, David Gershator was Jewish (and the obituary asks people who wish to make charitable contributions to donate to the Hebrew Congregation of St. Thomas; here is the synagogue's website), so I also wanted to be sure to mention another book by Phillis Gershator based on Jewish storytelling traditions: Wise and Not So Wise: Ten Tales from the Rabbis, also just a click away at the Internet Archive.

So, I hope you will enjoy all these lovely books by Phillis and David Gershator; so much goodness here, and all available to you at the Internet Archive.

Kallaloo! A Caribbean Tale

by David and Phillis Gershator