Several months ago I shared Virginia Hamilton's Bruh Rabbit and the Tar Baby Girl (Blue Sky Press, $16.95, ages 5 and up) with some fourth grade teachers wondered about using a dialect-filled book like this in their classrooms where they constantly work to get students speaking standard English. Virginia Hamilton, who died last year, knew the importance of bringing oral tradition to print and had a gift for translating the oral tradition into print. There's no better voice, no better read aloud, than one you find in a book which reflects a strong oral tradition. Several recent picture books by African-American authors show the same gift that Virginia Hamilton had.
Hamilton's last book, Bruh Rabbit is a classic Brer Rabbit tale rendered with Gullah-inflections. It is a book made to be read aloud, full of rhythms and cadences that make the story sing as Bruh Wolf sets up a raggedy tar girl to capture Bruh Rabbit because "Rabbit, him is trick-some-about to fool a body and not do a lick of work himself." Lyrically it rolls along as Rabbit "...creeping low-down, slow-down, and he sees the scarey-crow-Whom!-standing still and very white in the shine of the moon." Finally, Rabbit is caught in the tar and the story satisfyingly reaches the traditional folk lore ending of the briar patch escape.
Toni Morrison and her son, Slade, are retelling a series of Aesop's fables. Their third and most recent is Who's Got Game? Poppy or the the Snake? (Simon and Schuster, $17.95; ages 5 and up) . The book begins as a young boy tells his grandfather, Poppy", how he can't pay in attention in school. Poppy relates the story of how he saved a snake from death after nearly killing it, escaped death from the ungrateful snake's poison by paying attention, and got himself a new pair "remembering boots" of the "softest, shiniest snakeskin."
The book is a combination of straight narration, comic-book graphic-style expression, brought to life by the snake's lively, dramatic dialogue. The snake, full of attitude, defends his position, "You gonna blame me for having poison fangs? I ain't got no hands to fight with, like you do. And if you look close you'll see I don't got no wings to fly away on." It is the snake's voice which turns a potentially preachy tale into a funny, morality story.
New in paperback is Jerdine Nolen's Big Jabe (Harpercollins, $6.99; ages 5 and up). This original tall tale reads like a retelling. Young Addy, a house slave and expert fisher woman, finds a basket in the river with a small boy in it. Sighting her empty basket, he calls "Fish, fish, where is you fish? / Jump to the wagon like Miss Addy wish!" The river roils and fish jump, hop, and fly to fill Addy's wagon.
So begin the miracles of Jabe who grows to a man in three months, can "weed a whole field of soybeans before sunup, hoe the back forty by midday, and mend ten miles of fence by sunset" and when the overseer torments slaves, they disappear without a trace. Nolen's readable writing springs to life with oral tradition conventions of strong similes, dialect delivered in conversations, easy-to-visualize scenes, overstatements, and lessons buried discerningly in story.
Durham author Donna L. Washington has established herself as a story teller of national renown. She turns her talents to writing in A Pride of African Tales (HarperCollins, $16.99; ages 6-10). Each of her six stories are so steeped in the storyteller tradition that as you read, you can hear her voice and the way she reaches out to her audience. The tales are filled with well-placed repetition, play and humor, and a rich choice of words. All the stories carry the enjoyment of telling which sparks the pleasure of listening.
The six tales are varied in tone, type, and location. Among them there is an Anansi "trickster" tale, a "pourquoi" tale from the Congo about a selfish boy whose attempts to reach the moon, and a taboo tale about respect from Nigeria. Each carries an important message like paying attention, not giving into anger, or listening and thinking. All are delivered with joy and the storytellers' gift that plays rather than proselytizes. Brilliant watercolors by James Ransome match the vivid retellings.
Virginia Hamilton worked most of her life to bring African-American characters, expression, and sensibilities to children's books. Happily, there are many following in her footsteps, filling books with the kind of voice which oral tradtion inspires.
Retellings aren't the only voice-filled offerings by African American writers! Here are some recent books in other genres.
Andrea Pinkney, Fishing Day (Hyperion, $15.99; ages 7-10) This picture books finds a young black girl and her mother taking pity on an angry, poor white boy fishing on the other side of the Jim Crow River.
Shelia Moses, The Legend of Buddy Bush (McEderry Books, $15.95; ages 11 and up) The novel is a blend of the author's family history and tales she heard about a real person, "Buddy" Bush, who narrowly escaped a lynching in Rich Square, North Carolina in 1947.
Sharon Flake, Begging for Change (Hyperion, $15.99; ages 10 and up) This sequel to Money Hungry (Hyperion, $5.99; ages 10 and up) finds our young protagonist, Raspberry, and her mother still desperate to get out of the projects and away from the violence that threatens them. Raspberry still learning much about love, honesty, and the meaning of money.
Tonya Bolden, Portraits of African-American Heroes (Dutton, $18.99; ages 8 and up) Twenty short biographies give wide representation from all fields. There are striking monochromatic illustrations by Ansel Pitcairn, but best of all is Bolden's spirited telling which gives a sense of the real person.
Wade Hudson, Powerful Words: More than 200 Years of Extraordinary Writing By African Americans (Scholastic, $19.95; ages 10 and up) From Benjamin Banneker to rapper Lauryn Hill, thirty-six African-Americans are speak for themselves!
Patricia and Frederick McKissack, Days of Jubilee: The End of Slavery in the United States (Scholastic, $18.95; ages 10 and up) Slave narratives, letters and diaries are basis for this book and give voice to this historical period.