African Diaspora at Internet Archive: More Caribbean Books

Carrying on with the Caribbean theme this week, I have three more children's books available from the Internet Archive, thanks to the power of Controlled Digital Lending.

First up is Tiger Soup: An Anansi Story from Jamaica by Frances Temple.

The author did the illustrations too; here you can see Anansi and Tiger:

Next up is another Anansi book: Anansi by Brian Gleeson.

You might remember Brian Gleeson from an earlier blog post; he did this African folktale book for "Rabbit Ears" also: Koi and the Kola Nuts.

The illustrations are by Steven Guarnaccia; here's his rendering of Tiger and Anansi:

And the last book is not about Anansi; instead it features another famous Caribbean trickster, Rabby (Brer Rabbit in the U.S.), and his friend Boukee ("Boukee" being a Wolof name for the hyena, which meant his identity got very confusing in the Diaspora, there not being any hyenas in the Americas): The House in the Sky by Robert San Souci.

You might remember San Souci from earlier blog posts; here's a link: books by San Souci. The illustrations are by Wil Clay, who has decided to depict Rabby and Boukee in their human forms:

So, jump in and enjoy; these and millions more books await you at the Internet Archive!

Tiger Soup: An Anansi Story from Jamaica

by Frances Temple

 Anansi

by Brian Gleeson

The House in the Sky

by Robert San Souci

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: The Hired Hand

Since I've ended up doing a run of books by Robert San Souci this week, I thought I would include another one of his books today, this one illustrated by Jerry Pinkney! Here's the book: The Hired Hand.

You will recognize Pinkney's style right away!

In this book not only is there a fascinating authors's note; there is also a fascinating note from the artist also. You can see both the author's note and the artist's note on the same page here. 

San Souci explains how he found this African American tale, first published in a British magazine in 1887, indirectly through other research he was doing. Here's that story (click on the image for a larger view): De New Han'.

As you can see, the story is told in dialect, and one of San Souci's goals was to retell the story in a way that would be more accessible, without that affected and offensive dialect style which was so popular with white authors and audiences in the 19th century (I'll have more to say about that in future posts).

Meanwhile, in his artist's note, Jerry Pinkney explains how he at first thought he would need to set the story in the Reconstruction era to depict a Black-owned mill, but then he learned about the mill-town of Waterford, Virginia, established by Quakers, which had a large population of free Black craftspeople, which allowed him to depict the story in an 18th-century setting, for more of a folk/fairy-tale feeling. As he explains: "the farther back I set this story, the more magical it would become." Even more importantly, he says: "I wanted to provide a new, rich dimension to African-American folklore by bringing to the art a sense of time when free blacks were openly a part of several colonial communities, long before the Emancipation Proclamation."

One of the best things about San Souci's books is the way he uses the author's note opportunity to put his creative work in context, and it is even more exciting in this book with the addition of a note from Jerry Pinkney too! Plus, it's just a great story; read and enjoy!

The Hired Hand

by Robert San Souci

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Callie Ann and Mistah Bear

Yesterday and the day before I wrote about Caribbean folktale books by Robert San Souci; today I want to write about one of his books inspired by an African American story: Callie Ann and Mistah Bear. 

The lively illustrations are by Don Daily:

San Souci cites as his sources a Creole story from Louisiana collected by Alcee Fortier, "Compair Taureau and Jean Malin," and there is a similar story in Joel Chandler Harris (which San Souci does not cite): "Why Brother Bull Growls and Grumbles." Souci also notes the connection with an even more widespread folktale type: "Escape Up the Tree" (as documented in Parsons's catalog) which is found in African American, Caribbean, and African stories, as, for example, in Harris's "The Little Boy and His Dogs," which appears have suggested the bear character to San Souci; he does cite this Harris story as a source in his note.

In both Fortier and Harris, the dangerous suitor is a bull, not a bear; here's what that bull looks like in an edition of Harris illustrated by A. B. Frost:

And here's the illustration by Jerry Pinkney for Julius Lester's retelling of Harris's stories: 

Here's Daily's depiction of the bear suitor:

Not only has San Souci changed the animal from a bull to a bear, he has given the story a young girl as a heroine instead of a young boy, which is a nice change also. The way that she defeats the bear in the end is also not with magic but instead by using her wits. It's a wonderful story, and if you are a teacher, you might ask your students to compare this story and the stories by Fortier and Harris to see what similarities and differences your students notice, and they might be inspired to come up with their own version of the story, thinking about the different dangerous animals, the qualities of the human characters, etc., all those choices that each storyteller makes as they craft their story.

Callie Ann and Mistah Bear

by Robert San Souci

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Twins and the Bird of Darkness

In yesterday's blog post, I wrote about the collaboration between Brian Pinkney and Robert San Souci, and I wanted to say something more about San Souci today, looking at another book that, like his Cendrillon, is inspired by a Caribbean folktale: The Twins and the Bird of Darkness: A Hero Tale from the Caribbean.

The lovely illustrations are by Terry Widener. Here is the monstrous bird that the hero must defeat; if you look closely, you can see the hero and also the princess imprisoned in the tree where the bird lives, casting darkness over the land with his huge wings:

As San Souci explains in the note to the story, he was inspired by version sof this story collected by Elsie Clews Parsons on the island of Guadeloupe which she labeled as "Twin Brothers: Seven Tongues" and also "The Beast That Keeps the Country Dark." Click on the image to read more; Parsons provides this type of comparative bibliography for all the story types; it's so useful! You can see both African and European and other parallel versions listed there, along with additional Caribbean versions:

San Souci also borrowed from Philip Sherlock's West Indian Folktales, which is also available at the Internet Archive! Philip Sherlock was an important educator and writer from the Caribbean; I'll have more to say about him in future posts!

The world of Caribbean storytelling is a wonderful place to explore, and I'll have more Caribbean story books to share in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, enjoy!

The Twins and the Bird of Darkness:

A Hero Tale from the Caribbean

by Robert San Souci

West Indian Folktales

by Philip Sherlock

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Brian Pinkney

Since I wrote about a book illustrated by Brian Pinkney in yesterday's post, I wanted to follow up with another one of his books today: Cendrillon: A Caribbean Cinderella by Robert  San Souci.

This is from a Creole version of Cinderella, and be sure to look at the Creole glossary in the back along with the author's note about his sources.

The illustrations by Brian Pinkney are beautiful!

I also wanted to share another book that Brian Pinkney illustrated; it's not folklore, but instead poetry by Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper and Other Poems.

You can find out more about the great poet Langston Hughes at Wikipedia; how I wish he could have lived to see this beautiful book. You might recall that I wrote an earlier post about an anthology of African American folklore that Hughes edited: The Book of Negro Folklore.

Here's Pinkney's illustration for a poem about Jim Crow and merry-go-rounds: there ain't no back / to a merry-go-round.

I think it's wonderful to see how Brian Pinkney developed his own very distinctive style, just as his father, Jerry Pinkney, developed his own style over the years (more from Jerry Pinkney).

Cendrillon: A Caribbean Cinderella

by Robert  San Souci

 The Dream Keeper and Other Poems

by Langston Hughes