Too Much Talk: A West African Folktale

by Angela Shelf Medearis

Book Overview

A brightly illustrated retelling of a folktale from Ghana concerns the fun that starts when everything starts talking, including the farmer's yams, the fisherman's fish, and the weaver's cloth. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1564023230
• ISBN13: 9781564023230
• Release Date: October 1995
• Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA)
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 8.8" x 9.9"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

Let's Talk About it!

Talking yams are only the beginning of this simple and hysterically hyperdramatic retelling of an old Ashanti tale. When a farmer encounters a talking yam and runs and tells a fisherman, the fish talks, assuring him such a thing can't happen. Panic and hilarity ensues in the brief text and stylized pictures. This is one of those folktales that can be introduced to children of any age, and lends itself especially well to read-aloud for groups of children. Read-aloud works especially well with plenty of movement on the part of the reader, and encourages participation. Each talking creature or object invites the children to respond with a heartfelt "Aiyeee!" as the growing number of people run on, until they reach the king, for the inevitable conclusion. The story isn't meant to be a serious one, and the method of telling and illustrations support this humorous, almost comic strip kind of storyline. The large text on each page is short and to the point, making it accessible to even very young children. The art is lovely to look at--and you can see the African styling of it. Stefano Vitale has crafted a very vivid collection of images for this story. However, there does seem to be some mixture of African styles, according to some professional reviews, and this may be less well received by those familiar with regional African art styles. In my case, however, the stylized art and various elements of African imagery allow for children to get some exposure to this sort of art and style. As to the story itself, it appears to be an old folktale from Ghana, and an amusing one at that. I've seen another version of this story in "Anansi and The Talking Melon" by Eric Kimmel--one of the trickster tales where the cunning spider causes havoc by making a melon seem to talk. I'm not quite certain if these stories have the same origin, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did. Folktales are an important part of a balanced book diet, and it's often hard to find extremely simple ones for the youngest readers and listeners. This book is ideal on both counts. If you enjoy this, I reccomend checking out other Trickster tales such as Raven: Trickster Tales from the Pacific Northwest by Gerald McDermott and The Monkey and the Crocodile: I Jataka Tale from India by Paul Galdone. Happy Reading! ^_^ Shanshad

absolutely delightful African story

I am an elementary art teacher, and I read this book to my first graders when we were talking about African art. They absolutely loved the story! By the end of the book, they were reciting the repeating phrases with me. Then they wanted me to read the whole story all over again. I seldom get such an ethusiastic response from my students when I read to them. The artwork in the book is very reminiscent of African art and goes along very well with an art project we make when talking about Africa. This book is a wonderful addition to a unit on Africa.

Authentic story, beautiful pictures

The artwork is rich, detailed, amusing, and simultaneously illustrates different lines of the story--that is, in the background, are shown the line about the characters running up hill and down, while in the foreground the next phase and character of the story is depicted. Also each of the talking items floats in the background space, so you have lots of things to point out and talk about with the little ones--or just go for the story, it's fun. The colors and the dress of the people match what we see in W. Africa. My child enjoyed an animated reading from the age of 18 months. The story is a traditional one as well, which lends to the overall richness. I have a number of children's books depicting W. Africa, and this and Trina Schart Hyman's Fortune Teller are my favorites for their beauty, detail, and their faithfulness to the scene here. To the Sweet Shores of Africa, is another beauty as well---this one is poems with beautiful pictures.