Product Description

Retold Afro-American folktales of animals, fantasy, the supernatural, and desire for freedom, born of the sorrow of the slaves, but passed on in hope.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #232537 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-13
• Released on: 2009-01-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

Amazon.com Review
Humor, magic and mystery underscore the theme of freedom in this collection of stories drawn from the African-American folktale tradition. Renowned for her knowledge of the genre and seamless manner of delivering it, Hamilton comes together with two prize-winning illustrators to contribute yet another hardy volume. It includes gruesome, suspenseful and fanciful accounts of black history, as well as the narratives of "voices from the past," among them, Hamilton's own ancestors. Along with powerfully evocative pictures, the book has a glossary and notes on the origins and different versions of tales. The People Could Fly won the 1986 Coretta Scott King Award.

From Publishers Weekly
Three winners of multiple honors have created this incomparable book. The Dillons illustrate Hamilton's 24 stories with marvelous pictures alive with the spirit of each: sly humor, mystery, pathos and, most powerfully, the human need for freedom. In the author's introduction and notes, we find information on black history, on the original slave storytellers"voices from the past"that include her own ancestors. The stories are given full effect by Hamilton's use of colloquial language, evoking the artless entertainer relating the exploits of "Bruh Rabbit" and other animal tricksters. The reader's emotional response, however, is to the artists' depictions and the author's narrative in "The People Could Fly." They are the slaves from Gulla who, according to legend, escape the master's abuse one day. "They rose on the air. Say they flew away to Free-dom." (All ages).
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-7 The well-known author here retells 24 black American folk tales in sure storytelling voice. In four groupings she presents seven animal tales (including a tar-baby variant); six fanciful ones (including "Wiley, His Mama, and the Hairy Man" and a tale of which Harper's Gunniwulf Dutton, 1967 is a variant); five supernatural tales (including variants of the Tailypo, John and the Deviland a wild cautionary tale, "Little Eight John"); and finally, six slave tales of freedom, closing with the moving title story. Depending on the sources, some of the tales use a modified dialect for flavor; one told with quite a few words of Gullah dialect has a glossary. All are beautifully readable. The book has a bibliography, and comments follow each tale, including one personal note of a family account involving one of her grandfathers. Two other collections of black folk tales, Courlander's Terrapin's Pot of Sense (Holt, 1957; o.p.) and Faulkner's The Days When the Animals Talked (Follett, 1977; o.p.) are both out of print. With the added attraction of 40 bordered full- and half-page illustrations by the Dillonswonderfully expressive paintings reproduced in black and whitethis collection should be snapped up. Ruth M. McConnell, San Antonio Public Library
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

wonderful
This book rates way up there as a wonderful resource for anyone who is trying to raise children to have an appreciation for the cultures that make up our great country. As a home educator, I am always on the lookout for multi-cultural resources that provide a window into the backgrounds of others. Since the author writes from personal background experience, as well as research into the African-American folktales, I believe it is an excellent representation of stories that children would have grown up with in that culture. Besides, it's exciting, interesting, fun to read aloud, and has wonderful illustrations!

A Must-have for every American home
Fascinating folktales from an African-American perspective, this work evokes memories of the strength of a people to find magic, wonder, and spirituality in a time when oppression was the norm. Miss Hamilton, along with illustrators Leo and Diane Dillon, has produced a work of timeless importance. One of the few books that I can't keep on the shelves of my classroom, it is an essential for every teacher or person interested in exposing children to a wealth of literature.

This is a good book for kids that are 9 - 12 year old.
I really enjoyed reading this book, I am 9 year old. I read the book in about 2 days, it was about African-American folk tales. The best story in the book was "if the people could fly".