Who wants to marry a trickster? Ananse is looking for a wife and it is no easy matter. He is at his worst! He lies, he cheats and behaves badly. If you are the tiniest bit romantic, these stories are not for you. In fact, children start crying for nothing, jealousy spreads around the world, etc. etc. Now, if you have ever wondered what a lazy, greedy and selfish trickster wants most in a wife—it is not brains, not brawn or even beauty. Nope! According to Ananse, the ideal wife should have no mouth! No eating, no speaking! Ha! How does that work out for him?

The trickster is on a mission! He is most certainly cunning and clever, but is Kweku Ananse the most clever of all? Well, he thinks so and in Today‘s Water, he sets out to prove it! Along the way, we find out why the sky is far from the ground and how it came about that all stories are Ananse stories. Enjoy this collection of folktales from the Asante people of Ghana, featuring Kweku Ananse, who is sometimes a man and sometimes a spider. keywords: African Folktales, Ananse the spider, Ananse story, trickster, Ghana, Anansi

From talking yam tubers and polite little boys who throw up money, to the deliciously scary story of a disrespectful little girl who sets out to find something to see, this second collection of stories in the African Fireside Classics series has something for everyone.

If you were sitting in a tree and could only come down for someone you would like to marry, who would you pick? * The best dancer? * The very rich one? * Or the very strong and fearsome one, who promises to cut off the head of anyone who bothers you? Decisions, decisions! Monka was the girl in the tree. Who did she pick? Did she even pick? And, why on earth did anyone think that this was a good way to pick a husband? Read Monka's story and other tales of courtship and love. I have to warn you though, if you're looking for "lovey-dovey, happily-ever-after" stories, these are not it.

* Why do crickets have black teeth? * Why do chickens have beaks? * Why do spiders have small waists? The short answer is . . . Ananse did it! You can find the long answers to these and other intriguing questions in this collection of West African folktales. All twelve stories feature Kweku Ananse, the trickster, who is sometimes a man and sometimes a spider. Follow along as he works his mischief. On the way, you'll discover why spiders look the way they do, why termites are so angry and what happened to the crocodile’s ears.

The 13 Anansi stories in this short volume were originally, and unusually, an appendix to Popular Tales from the Norse by Sir George Webbe Dasent. Why he chose to include folklore from Africa and the Caribbean within a volume of Norse folklore has been forgotten in the mists of time. Abela Publishing has elected to re-publish these as a volume in their own right as an aide to Edgbarrow School’s fundraising campaign supporting the SOS Children’s Village in Asiakwa, Ghana. ANANSI or Ahnansi (Ah-nahn-see) “the trickster” is a cunning and intelligent spider and is one of the most important characters of West African and Caribbean folklore. The Anansi tales are believed to have originated in the Ashanti tribe in Ghana. (The word Anansi is Akan and means, simply, spider.) They later spread to other Akan groups and then to the West Indies, Suriname, and the Netherlands Antilles. On Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire he is known as Nanzi, and his wife as Shi Maria. He is also known as Ananse, Kwaku Ananse, and Anancy; and in the Southern United States he has evolved into Aunt Nancy. He is a spider, but often acts and appears as a man. The story of Anansi is akin to the Coyote or Raven the trickster found in many Native American cultures.

When the clever spider Anansi runs into difficulty on his long journey, he calls on his six sons for help.