| Title | : | Anansi and the Talking Melon |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0823411044 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780823411047 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 32 |
| Publication | : | First published March 1, 1994 |
Anansi and the Talking Melon Reviews
-
Now, I have been reading the “Anansi” series ever since I was little and I was always so amazed at the gorgeous artwork and the hilarious writing in each book! So, when I stumbled upon another “Anansi” story that was written by Eric A. Kimmel along with illustrations by Janet Stevens, I was pleasantly surprised by how this story turned out to be as entertaining as the previous “Anansi” stories!
The story starts off with Anansi looking down on Elephant’s melon patch from the trees and he wanted to have a melon. But since Anansi was always too lazy to do any work, he decided to wait until Elephant went off on break to eat a melon. So after Elephant left the melon patch, Anansi took a thorn from a tree and started digging a hole inside the melon to jump inside and eat the melon from the inside out. Once Anansi was done eating inside the melon, he tried to get out from inside the melon, but he become too fat to get out and he had to wait until he got thin again. Elephant then comes back to the melon patch and picks up the melon that Anansi was inside of and Anansi decided to play a little trick on Elephant by pretending to be the melon and successfully convinces Elephant that the melon is really talking. Elephant is so excited about this development that he decided to tell his friends and the king about the talking melon.
Will the King be impressed by the talking melon or will he realize that it is Anansi playing this trick?
Read this book to find out!
Wow! I must admit that I was quite surprised that I have not read this book yet since I have been reading the “Anansi” series ever since I was a child! Eric A. Kimmel has once again done an excellent job at writing this story as the story is highly creative and hilarious at the same time and I really loved the scenes where Anansi tricks the other animals into thinking that the melon is actually talking to them. I like the fact that in this story, Anansi does not actually steal anything like he did in the previous book “Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock” since it makes him into a less amoral character (although he still did dig inside one of the Elephant’s melons without Elephant’s permission) and the fact that he is just playing tricks on Elephant and the other animals just for the fun of it, makes him less malicious in nature. Janet Stevens’ artwork is as usual gorgeous to look at and I loved the way that Janet Stevens is able to convey the emotions on the characters’ faces, especially whenever the melon seems to insult each animal character and you get to see the animals’ angry expressions really close up.
Overall, “Anansi and the Talking Melon” is a truly hilarious book that is another great addition to Eric A. Kimmel and Janet Stevens’ “Anansi” series! I would recommend this book to children ages four and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book.
Review is also on:
Rabbit Ears Book Blog
-
Elephant works industriously in his garden while that trickster spider Anansi watches, yearning after the melons he is too lazy to cultivate himself. When Elephant goes inside for a rest, Anansi eats his way into the ripest melon, but gorges so much that he is too fat to get out again. Convincing Elephant that his voice is that of the melon, that the melon can in fact talk, the trickster is carried along to the king, with a growing procession of animals accompanying him on his journey. When his sarcasm earns the king's ire, the melon is smashed and Anansi released...
Anansi and the Talking Melon is the second picture-book about this famous West African trickster figure that I have read from author Eric A. Kimmel and illustrator Janet Stevens, following upon their
Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock. It pairs an amusing cumulative tale with expressive artwork that perfectly captures the humor of the story. The ending here, in which Elephant vows never to listen to talking melons again, only for Anansi, hidden inside a banana he is eating, to commend his choice, had me laughing out loud. It was such a pleasant and amusing ending to the story that I raised my rating from three to four stars. My only criticism of the book, and it is the same I made for Kimmel and Stevens' earlier book, is that no source material is given for this retelling, something I really look for in folkloric works. Recommended to Anansi fans, and to folklore lovers in general. -
Simple and sweet and all about a spider named Anansi. The illustrations and the story together are a true gem.
-
Genre- Children's books- Traditional literature
This fun story is about a spider, Anansi, that makes a whole in one of Elephant's melons then cannot get out because he was too big to fit back through the small whole. He decides to have a little fun with this situation and makes the animals think that this melon could talk.
A. The area of comment- size
B. The size of this book is very appropriate for this story and illustrations. I think Stevens did an awesome job with illustration and picking the right size paper for the book. If this book was smaller the reader may not be able to feel as connected with the book, and if it was bigger it may be too much and overwhelming.
C. The cover of the story and pages 3-4 are great examples to portray the necessity of having this size paper to connect to young readers. These pictures consist of Elephant holding a huge orange melon with Anansi, the spider, on top of it. There is a little grass showing at the bottom, but nothing else to distract the reader from the main characters of the story.
This is a fun book to read to young kids because it's silly and eay to read with great illustrations to show them as you read. You could connect this story to writing, reading, science, and art. -
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 convinces a bunch of animals that a melon can talk. We enjoyed this story, especially since we listened to the CD 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 is a trouble-making jerk when you think about it, but the book is funny and simple and the illustrations are amazing.
-
Super fun! We read to a crowd tonight. Our kids plus another family enjoyed this book. Anansi is quite a wise and cunning spider. We’ve enjoyed reading of his antics in the melon!
-
Anansi is up to his usual tricks. This time he convinces several animals that a melon can talk.
-
Julia and I listened to this while following along with the book in print and audio books are still pretty new to us.
I wasn't thrilled with the voice used for Anansi but I think that's just me. I tend to be a bit of a bore when I'm reading to Julia and have to do another voice. (Maybe why she seems to like audio books so much!)
We both liked the story well enough, definitely enough to check out any other Anansi books or maybe something different from Kimmel. The illustrations here are great - just perfect.
For a story that has a few of the same parts said a few times by different characters Kimmel handled the repetitiveness very well. Usually both of us get very tired of this sort of thing - and fast - but Kimmel managed it perfectly and it didn't feel tedious in the least. -
I loved the story about the trickster Anansi who decides to eat Elephants prized melon but gets stuck inside so he pretends he's a talking melon. Elephant is so impressed that he wants to take it to the king, who gets so furious with the insulting melon that he kicks it back to Elephant's house where Anansi is able to escape--wait for it...into a bunch of bananas which start talking. Loved the illustrations too.
-
I like all the Anansi books but this one is cute and the ending is laugh out loud funny. A bit of trivia: Anasi is an African trickster. When slaves were brought over to America, they brought "Anasi" with them and the character was altered into "Aunt Nancy." There are several Aunt Nancy stories and they too, are very good.
-
Great Anansi story! Love the humor and tricks of Anansi.
-
One of my favorite trickster tales. Works well with a range of ages
-
2nd favorite Anansi tale, only objection is the use of the word stupid, opportunity to explain to my students that, unlike in Spanish, it's not a curse word, just a not nice word.
-
They love this and find it hilarious.
-
A nice story time read.
-
Oh, this one was fun. Selected as part of our unit on melons, this one had less to do with melons than it did about Anansi, but it worked very well, anyway. The kids thought it was hilarious the way Anansi insulted the animals (and had great fun making up insults for the animals the other animals they met on the way...), and they enjoyed predicting how the book would end. The illustrations were good and the story well written and paced. My favorite element was being able to discuss how Anansi shows up in tradition literature, but that was less exciting to the kiddos than dealing with a talking spider...who, they pointed out to me, would only get thin again if he pooped a lot inside the melon. Oh, the joy of boys! Highly recommended.
-
Our first Anansi book, the one that started Mads (age 7) on an Anansi love affair (which has resulted not just in a love of trickster stories but also a new found love of spiders). As the one doing the bulk of the reading aloud, I appreciate that Eric Kimmel keeps the repetition to a minimum--we get the point, but it’s not beaten over our numbed heads and tongues. I also appreciate the opportunity to imagine and invent Anansi’s insults for the other animals featured in these pages--if a talking melon is as ridiculous as a skinny hippo or a handsome warthog, what insult could Anansi possibly have given to an ostrich or rhinoceros?
-
Anansi--a conniving spider--is a well-known character in West African and Caribbean folklore. In this tale, Anansi overeats and finds himself stuck inside a melon. Hoping to free himself and have a little mischievous fun along the way, Anansi convinces the other animals the melon is speaking. When the king gorilla finally loses his temper and throws the melon, Anansi is freed from his 'prison.' But the other animals are none the wiser, which suits Anansi just fine, as he's ready for another prank.
-
This retold story of Anansi is so humorous and cleaver. It follows the same pattern of the traditional African tale in that Anansi tricks others. However, the trick he plays is very different from the "original" version. There is also a repeated pattern in the way the story was written, which can be catchy to students. The illustrations are also very engaging and support readers with comprehension. It is a great, fun version of Anansi!
-
My kids loved Anansi the Spider so we found some more stories that feature this trickster. Anansi and the talking melon is a pretty funny tale. Anansi eats his way through a melon but eats so much he gets stuck! His situation ends up being his fun when he tricks the animals into thinking the melon is talking. The rude trickster ends up being released but his fun doesn't stop there!
-
Anansi stories originated from West Africa and have been passed to the Caribbean, to Central America and to the United States. Each Anansi teaches a lesson. In this stoty, Anansi, a spider, bores a hole in a juicy melon and eats a huge amount of melon. Now he is so plump he can't get out of that small hole!!
