A common feature in most African folklore, especially children's folk tales, is the trickster. The trickster is a cunning character that uses its natural intelligence to play tricks on others or break the rules. The trickster takes many forms, with the most common being human, sprit, or animal. In many west African tales, the tortoise is greatly featured as the trickster. The tales of the tortoise usually serve as a warning against immorality. The Sisi Tosin Tortoise series, brings back to life a classic oral tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation with vivid illustrations. The adventures of the trickster tortoise will equally amuse and teach children.

A collection of animal fables told by the Greek slave Aesop.

This book traces the development of Haiti's combined Vodou-Christian religion from 1500 to the present and explains how this combination of distinct faiths coalesces in a coherent belief system. What are the historical reasons for the popularity of two contradictory worldviews in Haiti, Vodou and Catholicism? What elements of Vodou and Catholicism are alike, and how are they drastically different? What is the connection between indigenous African religions and Vodou? And why has religion in Haiti evidenced an accelerating rate of change in recent decades? Roots of Haiti's Vodou-Christian Faith: African and Catholic Origins answers these questions and more in its examination of the highly unique and often-misunderstood religious practices in Haiti. Reaching back half a millennium to the European conquest of the island of Haiti, author R. Murray Thomas inspects the origins and nature of these two competing and complementary religious traditions: the traditional African faiths brought by the slaves who were imported to Haiti to labor in the fields and mines, and the Catholicism promoted—often violently—by Spanish and French colonial authorities. Following a historical background, the subsequent chapters focus on the organization of Haitian religion, spirits, creation belief, causes and ceremonies, maxims and tales, symbols and sacred objects, sacred sites, religious societies, and the future of the Vodou-Christian faith.

A curious dog carries on conversations with creatures of the forest in this picture book featuring verse with questions and answers.

It is a late evening in May 1941 and Victor Crespi should have returned home long ago. His wife, his daughter lise, and his eleven-year-old son Simon are apprehensive. After searching in vain all evening, his wife slumps in a chair and cries until dawn when she finally learns of her husbands fate: he has been arrested by the Vichy French police on his way home from work. In his possession is an identification card stamped Jewish. Enough evidence to render an innocent man guilty and send him to the Beaune-la-Rolande camp in the Loiret region. As Victor attempts to survive, Simon and his family cling to hope, even as Jewish round-ups continue. Everything changes a year later when Simon and his family are themselves picked up at dawn in their apartment. When Simon is distressingly separated from his mother and sister, he has just one thing that helps him hang onto life and hope: his mothers tortoise shell comb he keeps in his pocket.