(4) K-3 Illustrated by Nicole Allin. Anansi travels to different villages for delicious-smelling food. He won't help with preparations, leaving "one end of a web string" in each place and asking to be pulled back when the meal is ready. He's surprised when they tug simultaneously. The spirited telling works, but it's not well served by amateurish cartoony illustrations. An author's note and two (modern) recipes are appended but no sources.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(3) K-3 On My Own Folklore series. Illustrated by Jeni Reeves. In these stories, trickster Anansi wins a box of stories from the sky god; the Yellow Emperor fights the Black Dragon; a young man wins a princess's hand with his magic pomegranate; and a self-centered girl becomes the ghost La Llorona. Each tale is paired with an illustration style that nicely reflects the culture. Back matter provides further information. Review covers these On My Own Folklore titles: Anansi and the Box of Stories, The Tale of La Llorona, The Magic Pomegranate, and The Dragon Emperor.

Reviewer: Laura A. Woollett

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Julie Paschkis. In this Anansi story (which previously appeared in the retellers' Why Leopard Has Spots), Spider refuses to help his neighbors with the work on their communal farm. Later, when he tries to help himself to the ripened crops, the vegetables won't allow it: "You didn't help make the farm. Go away!" This retelling ends anticlimactically, but Paschkis's folk-art-like gouache illustrations are dynamic.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Rachel Isadora. Abena and her little brother, Kofi, take comfort in two folktales from their Ghanaian homeland as they face, with trepidation, their new life in America. Abena tells Kofi one tale involving Anansi and another about a turtle's perseverance. Vibrant illustrations shuttle between present reality and traditional scenes of Ghana and reinforce the siblings' closeness.

Reviewer: Christina Dorr

(3) YA Along with a rich cultural and ethnic mix, Nancy's unusual heritage includes the ancestral line of Anansi. As she waits impatiently for her own spider gifts to be revealed, she is powerfully drawn to a strange, pale boy whose family's fate is inextricably tangled with hers. Spider lore adds an original twist to this quiet coming-of-age story, set in contemporary Brooklyn.

Reviewer: Lauren Adams

(3) K-3 In this well-told pourquoi tale about "why lizards stretch their necks," Ananse is outsmarted by Lizard in a contest to win the chief's daughter's hand in marriage. Rendered in saturated colors, the illustrations shift in scale and perspective to capture the story from the spider's point of view. No sources are provided, but storytellers will love this one.

Reviewer: Pamela McCuen

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Baba Wague Diakite. The boastful and greedy spider connives his way through ten well-paced episodes retold here from the Ghanian author's childhood recollections. The folk-art paintings are sometimes at odds with the storyteller's words, but the stories offer enjoyable glimpses at Ananse's triumphs and humiliations.

Reviewer: Margaret A. Bush | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2002

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Janet Stevens. Anansi the spider steals Hyena's magic stick to help with his housework, but when Anansi falls asleep, the stick overwaters the garden, creating a flood that washes all the neighboring animals away. This retelling of a Liberian tale has a storyteller's voice and a sprightly pace. In general, the animated illustrations enhance this story, but the gratuitous appearance of Stevens and Kimmel in one spread is jarring.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam