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The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales

10 best books like The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales (Virginia Hamilton): Who's in Rabbit's House?: A Masai Tale, The Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch, The Real Thief, Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain, Elsie Piddock Skips in Her Sleep, Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf, A Lion in the Meadow, Come Away From The Water, Shirley

Who's in Rabbit's House?: A Masai Tale
AuthorVerna Aardema
When an unknown monster calling itself "The Long One" takes over her home, Rabbit isn't sure how to get rid of him. A series of animals offer their solutions, all of which turn out to be as destructive as they are helpful, until finally Rabbit turns to Frog, whose help she refused at the beginning.

Originally...
The Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit
AuthorJulius Lester
ISBN0142407208
I loved this book! The narrator and all the animals talk like deep South African Americans. It's great. The narrator uses lots of great similes. So far the stories (no more than 2 pages long at a time) are little tales of Brer Rabbit outsmarting, tricking, and causing mischief with all the other animals,...
The Twelve Dancing Princesses
AuthorRachel Isadora
ISBN0399247440
A magic cloak. A hidden passage.

A secret underground world beyond imagining.

Night after night, the princesses mysteriously wear out their shoes. But how are they doing it? The baffled king promises a great reward to any man who can solve the mystery.

From the colorful flurry...
The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch
AuthorRonda Armitage
ISBN0590551752
Every day, Mr Grinling rows out to the lighthouse to make sure everything is running smoothly and every day his wife, through the use of a rather ingenious cable system, sends him his rather lavish lunch (peach surprise and a killer sandwich among other things). That is until some well-named gulls see...
The Real Thief
AuthorWilliam Steig
ISBN0374462089
Gawain the goose is really devoted to King Basil the bear and so he takes his job as Chief Guard of the Royal Treasury seriously. When rubies, then gold ducats, and finally the world-famous Kalikak diamond vanish from the treasure house, there is no way to account for the disappearances. Only Gawain and...
Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain
AuthorEdward Ardizzone
ISBN1845074564
Little Tim wants to be a sailor, but his parents tell him he's too young, even though his retired boatman friend has taught him all about ships. He decides to convince them by stowing away on a steamer. When he is discovered, he is put to work scrubbing the decks, which is a lot harder than he expected.

Here's...
Elsie Piddock Skips in Her Sleep
AuthorEleanor Farjeon
ISBN0763601330

Elsie Piddock is a born skipper. By the time she’s seven, the tireless girl can even outskip the fairies and is rewarded with a gift of rare and lasting value. Can she use it many years later to save the children’s fabled skipping grounds from a greedy, factory-building lord? Charlotte Voake’s...
Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf
AuthorCatherine Storr
ISBN0140364633
This is an excellent book that tells the story of a very clever and witty little girl.

Polly is being tormented by a rather unpleasant wolf who constantly threatens to eat her! Polly, however, is far too clever for the silly wolf and devises a number of delicious ways to prevent him from eating...
A Lion in the Meadow
AuthorMargaret Mahy
ISBN0140506306
I'm still new to Margaret Mahy and this was a present from the guys at work. One of her more famous stories I believe. It's a nice warm story about the nature of stories and imagination and where the line between them and reality can blur, especially in the mind of a child.

Jenny Williams creates...
Come Away From The Water, Shirley
AuthorJohn Burningham
On a day trip to the seaside, Mom and Dad settle down in their deck chairs to snooze the day away, while for Shirley, it’s a chance to set sail for uncharted seas. "Come away from the water, Shirley," caution her parents. But Shirley has already set out on an adventure, where she encounters danger, pirates,...
Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale
AuthorCarmen Agra Deedy
ISBN1561453994
Martina the beautiful cockroach doesn't know coffee beans about love and marriage.
That's where her Cuban family comes in. While some of the Cucarachas offer her gifts to make her more attractive, only Abuela, her grandmother, gives her something really useful: un consejo increible, some shocking...
The Serpent Slayer: And Other Stories of Strong Women
AuthorKatrin Hyman Tchana
ISBN0316387010
I've just read this quickly before sending it to my niece. I'm disappointed that the prose doesn't sparkle. Tchana is a pedestrian stylist and there are certainly better-written folktales. But the content is fabulous. The 'princesses' are bright, curious, patient, physically courageous, thoughtful,...
Hodja fra Pjort
AuthorOle Lund Kirkegaard
ISBN8700178012
Ole Lund Kirkegaard, 1940-1979, dansk forfatter af børnebøger, som han selv har illustreret.
Hans personer, bl.a. i debutromanen Lille Virgil (1967), er ofte opfindsomme, legende børn, som sammen med skæve eksistenser og folkepensionister står i et modsætningsforhold til samfundets...
100万回生きたねこ
AuthorYoko Sano
ISBN4061272748
If you were concerned about The Big Ugly Monster and the Little Stone Rabbit , you'll be even more worried by this book. I must admit that I haven't yet tried reading it to a two year old, but here's my artist's impression of how it might play out:

ME: So what are we going to read tonight? How about...
Ellington Was Not a Street
AuthorNtozake Shange
ISBN0689828845
In a reflective tribute to the African-American community of old, noted poet Ntozake Shange recalls her childhood home and the close-knit group of innovators that often gathered there. These men of vision, brought to life in the majestic paintings of artist Kadir Nelson, lived at a time when the color...
The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural
AuthorPatricia C. McKissack
ISBN0679818634
Wow did this one surprise me. It's a collection of short horror stories, mostly based on African American folktales and set in the deep south. This was published by Scholastic, so I was expecting stories aimed at children. While technically I guess they are, the stories are much darker and mature than...
Friends from the Other Side/Amigos del otro lado
AuthorGloria E. Anzaldúa
ISBN0892391308
Friends from the Other Side, by Gloria Anzaldua, illustrated by Consuelo Mendez

Prietita is a young Mexican-American girl living in South Texas, near the Rio-Grande river which is the U.S.-Mexican border. One day, she meets a boy named Joaquin, who meets her clad in a long sleeve shirt (unusual...
American Indian Trickster Tales
AuthorRichard Erdoes
ISBN0140277714
Of all the characters in myths and legends told around the world, it's the wily trickster who provides the real spark in the action, causing trouble wherever he goes. This figure shows up time and again in Native American folklore, where he takes many forms, from the irascible Coyote of the Southwest,...
Snowbear Whittington: An Appalachian Beauty and the Beast
AuthorWilliam H. Hooks
ISBN0027443558
This simply wonderful Appalachian adaptation of the globally popular and celebrated Beauty and the Beast folktale type actually also contains many many elements of the Norwegian East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and it reminds me at least somewhat of the Russian folktale of Finist the Falcon Prince...
The Tale of the Mandarin Ducks
AuthorKatherine Paterson
ISBN0140557393
Wrtitten by Newbery Medalist Katherine Paterson with painting by Caldecott winning illustrators Leo and Diane Dillon

A beautiful mandarin duck is captured and caged by a greedy lord who wants to show off the bird's magnificent plumage. But the wild creature pines for his mate. When Yasuko,...
Talkin' About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman
AuthorNikki Grimes
ISBN0439352436
Soar along with Bessie Coleman in this inspirational tale of a woman whose determination reached new heights.

Elizabeth "Bessie" Coleman was always being told what she could & couldn't do. In an era when Jim Crow laws and segregation were a way of life, it was not easy to survive. Bessie...
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