Two Animal Tales from Africa
Two traditional tales about the animals of Africa.
books
Beverley Birch
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Greedy Anansi and his Three Cunning Plans
Crafty spider Anansi's cunning doesn’t always get him what he wants.
Shakespeare’s Tales
HAMLET
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
OTHELLO
THE TEMPEST
Illustrations by Stephen Lambert
Some of Stephen’s illustrations
extract from The Tempest
… an old face, etched with the lines of time and scored with a lifetime’s wisdom. In his eyes there were glimmerings, flickerings, mysterious lights that echoed the silver of his hair and beard: gold, like the gold of a sunrise yet to come, red, like the fire that had consumed the ship, blue, like the sea seared by the lightning’s flash.
In his eyes there was a story yet untold. It stirred angrily within him as he watched the dying ship.
He wore a robe, dark, rich and heavy. The garment swayed, a strange, rhythmic movement of deep folds like secret caverns ripe with mysteries: fear, hope, knowledge, all were woven deep within its fabric, for there was magic in the web of it.
In his hand the old man held a staff, a gnarled wooden stick. Yet it was more, much more. It waited in his hand, as though it rested, as though no more than thought, no more than an eyelid’s wink would fire its length with secret power. At his side there lay a book, red-bound and heavy, its pages worn with use, thumbed, scored, and learned, for they were pages saturated with the secrets of the enchanter’s art.
‘True to the power and poetry of the original plays, these dramatic retellings will help attract the reluctant and the intimidated to the pleasures of Shakespeare.’
Booklist
‘Superbly retold’
The Young Reader
‘Highly recommended’
The Book Report
‘all the wonder is retained and the difficulty lessened’
Meadowcreek Learning Resources Centre
‘captures the power and humour of the original plays’
Educational Media & Technology
[published by Hodder Children’s Books]
