Traditional Literature - Anansi the Spider

Title: Anansi the Spider, a Tale from the Ashanti

Author: Gerald McDermott

Illustrator: Gerald McDermott

Publisher: Henry and Holt Company, 1972

ISBN: 0-0850-0310-25

Summary: This is a folk tale about 7 spider, a father spider and his six sons. Each of his sons has a special gift or talent. When the father spider gets into trouble and needs some help, each of the sons uses his special gift to help get their father back to safety. When they return home, the father spider sees a bright, light globe, and decides that he will give this as a gift to his son who helped save him. But which son does he give the gift to, as they all helped? The father turns to Nyame, the God of All Things. They decide that since all of the sons helped to save their father, no son was more deserving of the prize than another. In the end, the brightly lit globe stays up high in the sky for all to see, and it is still there tonight.

Evaluation: I wanted to pick a story that I did not know about for one of the blog posts on traditional literature. I definitely did not know about this story, and I really enjoyed it. The illustrations are very original, and actually has a Caldecott Award Honor medal. This book definitely followed a folk tale theme. In the beginning of the book, there is a prologue (I assume for parents) that tells readers about the culture that the folk tale is from. I thought this was a neat addition, as parents can then educate their children on it, and use it as a bonus to help tell the story. Overall, the illustrations were so much fun to look at, and the folk tale taught a nice story of siblings working together to save their family member.

Rating: I would give this traditional literature book 5/5 stars.