A Story A Story - by Gail E Haley

About the Book

"The African folktale describing how Ananse the spider man purchased a golden box of stories from the sky god Nyame, retold in flavorful prose and illustrated with dramatic woodcuts in vivid colors. A wonderful version of the story for telling and a splendid picture book for sharing with a group".--Booklist.

Book Synopsis

Discover how an African trickster god made it possible for people to tell stories in this brightly illustrated, Caldecott Medal-winning picture book.

Long, long ago there were no stories on earth for children to hear. All stories belonged to Nyame, the Sky God. Ananse, the Spider man, wanted to buy some of these stories, so he spun a web up to the sky to bargain with the Sky God. The price the Sky God asked was Osebo, the leopard-of-the-terrible-teeth, Mmboro the hornet-who-stings-like-fire, and Mmoatia the fairy-whom-men-never-see. Can Ananse capture these sly creatures and give the children of earth stories to tell?

From the Back Cover

Many African stories, whether or not they are about Kwaku Ananse the 'spider man, ' are called, 'Spider Stories.' This book is about how that came to be.

About the Author

Gail E. Haley is a prolific author and illustrator. Her time living in the Caribbean inspired her book A Story, a Story, and she traced the folklore she heard there to their African origins, which she studied extensively before capturing with woodcuts that she cut and printed herself. She lives and works in New York with her family, surrounded by a large collection of early children's books, toys, games, and dolls going back to the seventeenth century.