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Summary
Summary
Draught and famine have come to the parched forest. And when a hungry Rabbit rescues Brother Chameleon from a thorny bush, Chameleon repays him tenfold with a magical gourd that always stays filled with food and water. But soon a greedy king steals the gourd to make gold and food for himself. Cleverly, Rabbit recovers his gourd, but still leaves plenty for the King. Surprised by Rabbit's kind act, the king begins to learn the importance of generosity and friendship. Exciting illustrations in bright ceramic plates, bowls and sculpture practically dance off of the pages
Author Notes
Born in 1961 in Mali, West Africa, Baba Wagué Diakité was named "Wagué," or "Man of Trust," after his grandfather. "I grew up in a storytelling family," Diakité remembers. "Even after my Western education in a French school, my basic understanding of life is still from this traditional education of mankind that my grandparents taught me...Without stories, there is no art." Though always artistically inclined, he didn't begin the ceramic work for which he is known until after he moved to the U.S. in 1985. Diakité's work has been in shows in New York, California, Texas, and Oregon. His first picture book, a retelling of one of his grandmother's fables called The Hunterman and the Crocodile, was named a Coretta Scott King Honor Book. Diakité teamed up with his daughter Penda, who was 12 at the time, to publish I Lost My Tooth in Africa, a warm family story about the African tooth fairy. Penda was inspired to write this story about her little sister after they returned from visiting their family in Mali. The Diakité family divides their time between Portland, Oregon, and Bamako, Mali. For more information about Baba Wagué Diakité, visit: scholastic.com/tradebooks
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-3-Diakite sets his story in his native Mali. After Dogo Zan the rabbit saves a chameleon from a sticky situation, he is given a magic gourd that fills with whatever its owner wishes in payment for his kindness. When the greedy king learns about its magic powers, he takes the gourd by force. Using another gift from the chameleon, Dogo Zan recovers his treasure and teaches a lesson in generosity as well. Diakit illustrates this tale with paintings on ceramic tiles, plates and bowls, and borders with designs from Bamana mud cloth patterns, which are imbued with their own symbolism. The resultant images, set against color-saturated backgrounds, are often arresting. The end matter includes lyrics to a praise song that illustrates the importance of spiritual wealth over material possessions, a description of pertinent aspects of the author's childhood, an explanation of the mud cloth designs, and a note about the widespread dissemination of stories with similar plot motifs. Overall, this is an attractive folktale variant.-Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Malian folklore springs to life in the exquisitely painted ceramics that have become Diakit's (The Hatseller and the Monkeys) illustrative trademark. Set against solid color fields, his bold pottery extends an energizing magic to a traditional African tale of an enchanted gourd. The gourd, which fills with whatever its owner desires, is a gift to Brother Rabbit for his altruism in freeing Chameleon from a thorny bush. Rabbit uses the magic vessel to feed his hungry family and the rest of his impoverished village. Here, several photographs of ceramic bowls, all with intricate black-and-white exterior designs, break up the text. Viewed from different angles, the interiors of the bowls change to match the text: at first readers see the faces of Rabbit's family reflected as they peer inside; elsewhere, the interior is painted with carrots and then with water. The story plays out on plates and tiles in impressively detailed paintings. Deepening the impact of the illustrations, traditional Malian mud cloth patterns border the ceramics. Extensive endnotes explain each motif's meaning, define the text's many Malian sayings and words, illuminate the cultural context and identify the tale's folkloric "cousins" around the world. A visually invigorating work. Ages 5-8. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
In a time of famine, Chameleon rewards Brother Rabbit for a kind deed with a magic gourd that fills with whatever its owner desires. King Mansa Jugu steals the gourd, but clever Rabbit recovers it and teaches the greedy king a lesson. Photos of exquisitely crafted ceramic plates, bowls, and tiles bordered with traditional Mali patterns illustrate this West African tale, which is retold with both economy and flair. Glos. From HORN BOOK Fall 2003, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
An intense artistic experience awaits the reader of this highly moral, Malian version of a "magic pot" folktale. Rabbit saves Iguana from his imprisonment in a thorny bush and receives the "magic gourd" with its bottomless bounty as his reward. Rabbit shares his good fortune with everyone, until the avaricious king hears the stories. When the king takes the bowl, Iguana comes to Rabbit's rescue with a second gift, a magic stone that continually hits the king and forces him to bargain with Rabbit and eventually to return the gourd to him. In fact, he becomes so exasperated that he tells Rabbit to take the food in his storage bins as well as his gold, but when Rabbit leaves with only his rightful possession, the king takes it as a lesson. DiakitÉ educates, entertains, and visually enchants from beginning to end. The back cover is a large, arresting picture of the smiling author-illustrator with his two beautiful daughters, holding a large bowl similar to the ones in the photographic images popping out of the deeply-colored pages of the interior. Richly detailed bowls, plates, sculptures, and textiles display stylized characters and mud cloth patterns that symbolize many concepts meaningful to the Bamana people of Mali. DiakitÉ provides a wealth of explanatory material as well as glossary of Bambara words used in the text that greatly enhances the telling. The last few pages include a praise song and an author's note about learning stories about the clever Zazani, or Rabbit, in childhood. A description of the traditional mud cloth patterns used as the borders of the tiles and platters offers additional insights and will send the careful reader back to the story again and again. Finally, DiakitÉ ends with a feature found in his earlier works, The Hunterman and the Crocodile (1997) and The Hatseller and the Monkeys (1999): the description of the international variants of this type of tale. Richly rewarding indeed. (Folktale. 5-10) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 2^-4, younger for reading aloud. With characteristic energy and spirit, Diakiteretells a tale from his native Mali and illustrates it with painted, boldly patterned art created from ceramics. Searching for food for his famine-stricken family, Brother Rabbit pauses to free a chameleon from a thorn bush, and, in return, receives a magic bowl that fills with anything upon request. After a greedy king seizes the bowl, Chameleon gives Rabbit another gift--a rock that wreaks havoc on anyone who does not speak to it with respect. Rabbit uses the rock to regain his prize--and by choosing to leave the royal treasure behind, is able to reform the king. Bordering each ceramic design is a different "mud cloth" textile pattern, the meaning of which the artist explains in a lengthy postscript. Diakitecloses with a discussion of the story's themes and antecedents, an introduction to praise songs, and a glossary of the Bambara exclamations and expressions that punctuate the story. Despite the pounding rock, this is less violent than many European variants of the tale; it actually focuses more on kindness than on trickery. --John Peters