African Diaspora at the Internet Archive: Spreadsheet (13)

Here's the latest: there are now over 7300 items from over 150 different sources linked from the spreadsheet to the pages of books at the Internet Archive, everything just a click away! You can find it all at the African Diaspora Folktale Spreadsheet. Here's the spreadsheet embedded (be patient while it loads; it takes a while for thousands of things to load in the post):

And, of course, the big African Folktale Spreadsheet is available also, with over 10,000 stories there. You can find out more about how the spreadsheets work here.

Plus, don't forget about the Anansi Book Club. The book for this week is John Steptoe's Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters. Here's a blog post about it, plus a Twitter thread I wrote over the week. The Archive has multiple copies of this one!

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: David Makhanlall

After some Brer Rabbit yesterday, it's more Brer Anansi today, with three books by David Makhanlall, a writer from Guyana (between Venezuela and Suriname on the northern coast of South America).

First up is The Invincible Brer Anansi:

You'll find 9 stories in this book — The Rainbow War ~ Disappearing Act ~ The Missing Voice ~ Anansi's Picnic ~ The Pumpkin Thieves ~ The Ghost ~ The Best Feast Ever ~ The Joy Ride ~ Iced Lemonade — and the illustrations are by Michael Jackson; here's King Leo drinking the iced lemonade of that final story:

Next up is The Further Adventures of Brer Anansi:

There are 9 stories in this book also: Vote for Brer Anansi ~ Walk on Water ~ The Big Supply ~ Potato Drink ~ Editor Anansi ~ Harvest Gold ~ A Day at the Grease Pole ~ The Brown Swindle ~ The Sound of Music. The illustrations are again by Michael Jackson, and Brer Rabbit figures in some of the stories too, as you can see in this illustration:

Then there is one more book, this one with a single story: Brer Anansi and the Boat Race.

The illustrations are by Amelia Rosato, and in her rendering, Anansi is a furry-looking sort of spider. Here he is relaxing at the end of the story:

So, if you are looking for Anansi stories retold for children, you will enjoy these stories from Guyana as retold by David Makhanlall!

The Invincible Brer Anansi

by David Makhanlall

The Further Adventures of Brer Anansi

by David Makhanlall

Brer Anansi and the Boat Race

by David Makhanlall

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Two Rabbit Books

Anansi has been getting a lot of attention here lately, so I wanted to do some Rabbit today, featuring two children's books by authors very familiar to readers of this blog: Julius Lester and Virginia Hamilton.

Here's the Julius Lester book: Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear.

Follow this link for more books by Julius Lester!

The illustrations are by Elsa Godfrey. As you can see, this is the famous story of how Brer Rabbit tricked a girl into letting him into her father's garden so he could eat all the lettuce. (And yes, Mr. Bear will have an important role to play in the story too!)

And here's the Virginia Hamilton book: Bruh Rabbit and the Tar-Baby Girl, an even more famous Rabbit story. 

Follow this link for more books by Virginia Hamilton!

The illustrations are by James Ransome, one of my favorite illustrators! Here's the rabbit all tangled up on the tar-baby girl:

You might remember Ransome from this book of stories from the southern U.S. as told by J. J. Reneaux: How Animals Saved the People: Animal Tales from the South. 

We can never get too many rabbit stories; enjoy!

Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear

by Julius Lester

Bruh Rabbit and the Tar-Baby Girl

by Virginia Hamilton

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: More from Richardo Keens-Douglas

Yesterday I shared three books from Richardo Keens-Douglas, a storyteller and author from Grenada, and I have some more of his books to share today. The first one is an Anansi story: Anancy and the Haunted House.

The illustrations are by Stephane Jorisch, who also did the illustrations for The Trial of the Stone: A Folktale (see yesterday's blog post). Here you can see Anansi and the little spiders. It is always fascinating to see how artists depict Anansi; this Anansi is very spider-y!

The next one is The Nutmeg Princess, which is the first children's book that Keens-Douglas published.

With this story, I am not quite sure if it is a traditional folktale or a creative story in folktale style. Either way, nutmeg is a distinctive feature of Grenada (it is a "spice island" of the Caribbean), and the story is beautifully told, with beautiful illustrations by Annouchka Galouchko.

There's also a Spanish translation at the Archive too: El Misterio de la Isla de las Especias.

The same is true of this third book, which is a very moving story of the Middle Passage: Freedom Child of the Sea.

The powerful illustrations are by Julia Gukova. Here is a close-up from the remarkable scene of the slaves held captive on the ship:

The legend here reminds me a lot of another book I've blogged about here: Kim Siegelson's In the Time of the Drums. 

Siegelson's book is based on a Gullah legend (as she explains in an author's note at the back of the book). In this book by Keens-Douglas, I am not sure if this is a traditional legend or a piece of creative writing, but either way it resonates powerfully between past and present. 

So, between yesterday's post and today's books, you have a treasure-trove of books from Grenada, all just a click away at the Internet Archive, thanks to the power of Controlled Digital Lending.

Anancy and the Haunted House

by Richardo Keens-Douglas

The Nutmeg Princess

by Richardo Keens-Douglas

Freedom Child of the Sea

by Richardo Keens-Douglas

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Richardo Keens-Douglas

Carrying on with the theme of more children's books for this week, I will have books both today and tomorrow to share from Richardo Keens-Douglas, a storyteller and writer from Grenada! Here are the three books for today:

First up is Mama God, Papa God: A Caribbean Tale. It's a creation tale, so I figured a creation tale should definitely get to come first!

The lovely artwork is by Stefan Czernecki:

Next is a story based on a famous Caribbean supernatural legend: La Diablesse and the Baby: A Caribbean Folktale.

You can find out more about the Diablesse legend at Wikipedia. The striking art for this book is by art by Marie Lafrance:

And last but not least, Keens-Douglas retells a funny folktale in this book: The Trial of the Stone: A Folktale.

The art by Stephane Jorisch matches the comical spirit of the original story perfectly:

So, enjoy! Keens-Douglas was new to me until I found his books at Internet Archive, and I'm so glad to know about him. I'll be back with more of his work tomorrow.

Mama God, Papa God: A Caribbean Tale

by Richardo Keens-Douglas

La Diablesse and the Baby: A Caribbean Folktale

by Richardo Keens-Douglas

The Trial of the Stone: A Folktale

by Richardo Keens-Douglas

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: More Anansi

I had so much fun with the children's books last week that I decided to carry on for another week! I'm starting with two Anansi books. The first is a bilingual book in Spanish and English: Brother Anansi and the Cattle Ranch by James De Sauza, adapted by Harriet Rohmer. The Spanish title is El Hermano Anansi y el Rancho de Ganado.

Harriet Rohmer heard the story from James de Sauza, a carpenter in Nicaragua, who told the story to her in Creole.

The English and Spanish versions appear side by side:

The illustrations are by Stephen van Mason, who has chosen to portray the folkloric "Tiger" as a jaguar:

The other book is by Anne Adeney: Anansi the Banana Thief: An African-Caribbean Tale.

I recognized this story because I included a similar story about Anansi, Monkey and Tiger in my 100-word Anansi story book! 

The illustrations are by Yannick Robert.

We can never have too many Anansi stories IMO! And The Internet Archive abounds in them. :-)

Brother Anansi and the Cattle Ranch

by James De Sauza

Anansi the Banana Thief:

An African-Caribbean Tale

by Anne Adeney