Baba Wagué Diakité

Mee-An is the most beautiful girl in all the village and seeks to marry a perfect looking man without any blemishes or scars. Mee-An turns down suitor after suitor until she meets this odd man that her sister Assa says "does not smell like a human". She marries the man and they journey to their new home with Assa's help. One day the girls discover that Mee-Ann's perfect man is no other than a magic serpent in disguise who really wishes to eat the girls. Mee-An and Assa then beg a heron for help to fly them back home.
This folktale teaches children to appreciate one's heart over one's looks. This is a common lesson is fairy tales or folklore, but I like how this book took a different twist on the lesson. I also enjoyed the lively illustrations of the book, and thought that the back story on the heron turning white was interesting as well.… (meer)

One factor is folklore that I did not think would be reoccurring is outsmarting. This is the second folklore book I read in which an animal or a human outsmarts another animals or human. In "The Hatseller And The Monkeys", BaMusa outsmarts the monkeys in the tree that stole his hats. BaMusa makes colorful hats and hears about a festival where he can sell them. He leaves so early in the morning that he does not eat. When he decides to rest under a mango tree, he falls asleep and monkeys snatch his colorful hats and head up the tree. When BaMusa wakes, he is hungry and confused. He throws rocks at the monkeys but they just throw mangoes back. BaMusa eats some mangoes thrown at him by the monkeys, then he can think clearly. He takes his only hat left off of his head, as do the monkeys. Then he drops his hat on the ground and all of the monkeys drop theirs. Thus, the lesson learned in this story is "It is with a full stomach that one thinks best, for an empty satchel cannot stand." This is a fun suspenseful reading that presents a problem and solution, and also a lesson. The colorful illustrations will have students wondering what happens next and cheering for BaMusa at the end.… (meer)