| Title | : | Anansi Goes Fishing (Anansi the Trickster) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 082340918X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780823409181 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 32 |
| Publication | : | First published March 1, 1993 |
Anansi Goes Fishing (Anansi the Trickster) Reviews
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The trickster is tricked in this retelling of an Anansi story from the West African folk tradition. Seeing Turtle with a fish, Anansi the spider decides that he would like a fish as well. Unfortunately, he doesn't really like to work. When he suggests that Turtle teach him how to fish, he is not sincere, but thinks to make his chelonian counterpart do all the work. Little does he suspect that Turtle is wise to his ways, and plans to do just the same...
Anansi Goes Fishing is the third picture-book devoted to this arachnid trickster's doings that I have read from author/artist team Eric A. Kimmel and Janet Stevens, following upon their
Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock and
Anansi and the Talking Melon. Like those other titles, it combines an amusing tale of trickery, and of the trickster getting his comeuppance, with bright, colorful illustrations that accentuate the humor of the story. I have seen this particular tale before, in Verna Aardema and Bryna Waldman's
Anansi Finds a Fool, although in that telling, the characters are represented as human, rather than animal. I enjoyed both retellings, truth be told, so the reader's selection will probably depend on which artistic style they prefer. Or they could do what I so, and try to read them all! -
“Anansi Goes Fishing” is the sequel to Eric A. Kimmel’s and Janet Stevens’ book “Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock.” This time, Anansi meets his match when he goes fishing with Turtle and Anansi ends up doing all the work to catch a large fish, while Turtle just sits back and enjoys the show. “Anansi Goes Fishing” will be an instant hit to children who are fans of the “Anansi” series.
Eric A. Kimmel’s writing is clever as he brilliantly shows that Turtle can easily handle Anansi’s laziness by tricking him into actually doing work, therefore, showing the true meaning of what work is all about. Janet Stevens’ illustrations are as beautiful as ever as she displays the forest in various colors, mainly green, pink, and brown colors. The illustration that stands out the most in this book is probably the illustration of Turtle himself as Turtle is mostly in brown colors and is shown to be a wise looking animal indeed. I also love the illustrations of Turtle wearing beach outfits as he goes out to the river with Anansi as it indicates that he is truly going to relax while Anansi does all the work with catching the fish.
“Anansi Goes Fishing” is just as clever and hilarious as “Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock” as the moral of the story here is that hard work truly pays off at the end, even when you least expect it! I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since I think that smaller children would have trouble sitting through this book since it may be too long for them to handle.
From my Epinions Review:
http://www0.epinions.com/review/Anans... -
This is my favorite of all the Anansi books because of the wonderful combination of story and pictures. Eric Kimmel tells a good story, but Janet Stevens' illustrations add that touch of humor that tell you
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I love this trickster tale of Anansi the Spider and the Tortoise! It is a fun read with a trickster tale and pourquoi story intertwined. My third graders loved the trickster tale and beautiful pictures.
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The last page is the only one that made the story make sense. I have read a few of these books, but this story seemed opposite from the lazy and tricky Anansai that has been portrayed in the other books.
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This is a retelling of how Anansi learned to make webs from the African folklore. I always enjoy Anansi stories so I was pleased to purchase this one. The writing here was clean and polished and the hatching on the illustrations was charming.
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Mads (age 7) and I both agree that our favorite of Eric A. Kimmel’s Anansi series are the books featuring Turtle. There’s something really satisfying about a trickster being tricked. As with the rest of the Anansi series, this is beautifully illustrated and really made Mads laugh.
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With the help of vibrant colors and eye catching illustration we get to read about Anansi, the lazy spider, learning a lesson on hard work and integrity.
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Oh Anansi. What an enjoyable, funny little story!
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oh that one is GREAT. This is an actual picture book, and a quick read, and I recommend it to all adults as well as the intended audience.
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Fascinating story. A wise turtle taught a lazy and dishonest spider how to weave a net to catch fish and that was the beginning of the spider's web! I did not know that. :)
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My absolute favorite tale about Anansi! Dont want to spoil for those who don't know this story, but it's well worth the read. Perfect for units on spiders or African and Caribbean culture.
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My class really enjoyed this book. I'll have to get the others for them to hear.
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I have not read any Anansi books, but the boys and I liked it and the boys laughed quite a bit. We liked the hidden animals through out the pages.
These were originally Western African folktales and are told in the Caribbean. As per the book cover. -
A good story about the value of hard work.
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Meh.
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This was a fun and relatable fable that I read with my 2nd graders! It had a great moral and characters that my students really connected with!
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Anansi Goes Fishing is appropriate for students in kindergarten through second grade.
Traditionally, the character Anansi, who is sometimes a man and sometimes a spider, is the trickster in West African and Carribean tales, and he intends to be in this tale as well, but his friend Turtle has other plans.
On the Library of Congress page, the story begins. Turtle has caught a fish. Anansi wants some fish too, but he is very lazy. Anansi asks Turtle if he will teach him to fish. Turtle agrees and brings all of the equipment for making a net. He tells Anansi that when he makes the net by himself he gets tired, but because there are two of them, one of them can work while the other gets tired. The wording of the story becomes very important here.
Anansi thinks he is very clever and tells Turtle that he doesn't want to get tired, so Turtle shows him how to make the net and then lies down in a folding chair on the river bank. Anansi works feverishly and Turtle says, "I'm getting very tired." When Anansi finishes the net, he wakes Turtle up. Turtle says that Anansi must have worked very hard because he, the Turtle, is very tired.
The next day, Turtle brings a cooler and an umbrella to the river bank. Turtle offers to set the net in the river while Anansi gets tired, but Anansi doesn't want to be fooled. He doesn't want to get tired. So, again, Anansi does all the work while Turtle enjoys chips and soda on his folding chair.
The pattern continues and when Anansi catches the fish, Turtle tells him that when he eats by himself he gets full, but because there are two of them, they should share the task. One can eat while the other gets full. Anansi is too smart to be fooled by Turtle, so he decides that he should be the one to get full. He lies down on the folding chair and while Turtle eats, he asks Anansi if he is full. But, of course, Anansi isn't eating, so he never gets full. Turtle finishes the whole fish.
Anansi feels cheated and he goes to the Justice Tree to complain about Turtle's horrific behavior. Warthog doesn't believe Anansi because Anansi has been so lazy in the past. He concludes that Turtle must have done all of the work if Turtle was the one who became tired. Anansi goes home in disgrace, but he weaves himself a net and teaches his other spider friends the skill too.
As with many other trickster tales, this story explains how something in the natural world came to be. This story is used to explain how spiders learned to spin webs and use them to catch food.
I enjoyed this book the most out of all the trickster tales I read because the trickster is fooled over and over again. It sort of feels like the "good guys" got revenge for all of the terrible pranks tricksters have been playing on them over the years. I also love the illustrations in this book. Turtle is quite the character. I especially love the spread where he is wearing giant, colored sunglasses and a floral print shirt, while carrying a boom box on his shoulder to the river bank. TOO FUNNY!!! -
Anansi Goes Fishing is the tale of how spiders learned how to weave spider webs. Anansi asks Turtle to teach him how to fish, and he gets tricked into doing all of the work and does not get to eat the fish. Anansi learns not to trust Turtle, but does take away from it the knowledge of weaving. He teaches the art of weaving to all of the spiders, making it standard for spiders to have webs.
The artwork is very detailed and enjoyable. The artwork tells the story just as much as the words do. The story is written in a way that reflects the style of most folktales. Each character takes turns talking, and cause and effect is a big part of the story.
Children will enjoy reading this book, and will find that it is a very interesting way of explaining why spiders make webs. This book can easily be read to children, and the pictures are large enough that it is suitable for a storytime. -
I was very disappointed to find the word "stupid" in this book (2x). Especially since it was referring to one of the characters and not their actions. In the end it is implied that Anansi really is the stupid one.
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This is a fun tale about Anansi. Sometimes he is foolish, sometimes he is clever, but he's almost always lazy. In this story, this trickster gets tricked by a wise old turtle. And we love turtles, so this was a great story for us. We enjoyed this story, especially since we listened to the audiocassette narrated by
Jerry Terheyden as we followed along with the book. I love the voice he uses for Anansi! And the illustrations by
Janet Stevens are terrific, too. -
Anansi Goes Fishing is a lot like the other Anansi books. We listened to most, if not all of them, which I probably wouldn't do again. Well, I can't say that. Julia liked the narrator and I have to admit that he did a good job with the voices of the animals, Turtle and Anansi in this case.
Steven's illustrations are the same as the other Anansi book which always keep Julia intrigued and poring over the pages.
I don't think we've missed any Anansi book but I'll have to double check because Julia does like them. I'd recommend them to a parent looking for a decent children's "series". -
This Anansi story tells how Anansi learned to make a spider web. When Anansi and Turtle plan to go fishing together, Anansi decides to trick Turtle into doing all the work but keeping all the fish for himself. This plan backfires for Anansi; he ends up doing all the work while Turtle sits around doing nothing. When it came time to eat the fish, only Turtle enjoys the meal, leaving nothing for Anansi. One thing Anansi learns from fishing with Turtle is how to create a net to catch food, which eventually became known as a spider web.
This is a cute trickster tale. The illustrations perfectly depict the story. I always enjoy the classic Anansi stories. -
Anansi Goes Fishing
by Eric A. Kimmel, Janet Stevens (Illustrator)
a continuance of the anansi series, anansi is a spider who is known to be lazy when turtle tricks him into learning about fishing and anansi does all the work no one believes him that he did all the work. you can't change your nature
