Anansi Goes Fishing

Anansi the spider plans to trick Turtle into catching a fish for his dinner, but Turtle proves to be smarter and ends up with a free meal. Explains the origin of spider webs.

Anansi the spider plans to trick Turtle into catching a fish for his dinner, but Turtle proves to be smarter and ends up with a free meal. Explains the origin of spider webs.

School Library Journal

K-Gr 2-- In a companion volume to Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock (Holiday, 1990), Kimmel and Stevens team up again to extend the humor of a trickster tale from Africa. Anansi joins Turtle on a fishing excursion, intending to con him out of all the fish. Anansi's stubborn selfishness proves to be his undoing day after day until, at last, he realizes the folly of his ways because he has been tricked into doing all the work and is still hungry. Kimmel has adapted Joyce Cooper Arkhurst's sparer version found in The Adventures of Spider , (Little, 1964; o.p.) transforming the fisherman into a turtle and judiciously exercising his storyteller's prerogative to add humorous details and lively dialogue that follows a repetitive pattern. Although the ending has been changed substantially from the original source, it is nonetheless satisfying and suits this variation of the tale. Stevens's watercolor illustrations feature bright colors and bold black outlines and range from broad humor to subtle slyness. She, too, has taken liberties in her interpretation by affording Turtle human trappings and consistently portraying Anansi as an unadorned spider. Together, the text and art combine in a fresh new version that is a fine choice for oral presentation or for independent reading. --Starr LaTronica, North Berkeley Library, CA