Book Corner
2005 Aesop Award Winners

From the Winds of Manguito/Desde los Vientos de Manguito: Cuban Folktales in English and Spanish/ Cuentos folkloricos de Cuba, en engles y espanol (World Folklore Series) by Elvia Perez, Victor Hernandez Mora, Margaret Read MacDonald (Editor), and Paula Martin (Translator). Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited, 2004. Hardback, $35.00. 184 pages. (ISBN 1-59158-091-9)

This collection of Cuban folklore and folktales captures the exciting and traditional folkways of the Cuban countryside. All twenty-one tales are presented in English and Spanish, making this an excellent resource for ESL and Spanish language classes. Drawing from both Hispanic and Afro-Cuban traditions, the stories range from engaging animal stories and tales of the fantastic to Afro-Cuban tall tales. Included is a brief history of the island, information on Cuban gods, a glossary of Cuban terms, notes on the stories, and folklore motifs.

Roy Makes a Car by Mary E. Lyons and Terry Widener (Illustrator). New York: Atheneum, 2005. Hardback, $16.95. 34 pages. (ISBN 0-689-84640-1)

Inspired by two paragraphs collected and written by Zora Neale Hurston for the Federal Writers' Project in the 1930s, Lyons and Widener have expanded and illustrated a delightfully funny tall tale about Roy Tyle, a profoundly gifted auto mechanic. Widener’s captivating illustrations are reminiscent of Thomas Hart Benton’s dramatic style with bold colors and unusual perspectives and angles. In the story, Roy decides to build a better car than any available and creates one that can escape all difficult traffic situations with the push of a button. A flying car, his second design, is so good that God orders models of it for his angels. The story is followed with a delightful note about the “storycatcher” Hurston.

The Flying Canoe retold by Roch Carrier, Sheila Fischman (Translator), and Sheldon Cohen (Illustrator). Toronto: Tundra Books, 2004. Hardback, $15.95. 24 pages. (ISBN 0-88776-636-6)

Adapted from the French folktale “La Chasse-galerie,” this is a Quebecois folktale about a homesick 11-year-old boy. The child is working at a logging camp deep in the isolated woods of Canada. It is 1846, New Year’s Eve, and Baptiste and his lumberjack friends climb aboard a flying canoe that magically transports across country villages and vast stretches of rivers. Bright purple, red, and yellow illustrations, drawn in pencil and digitally colored, capture the action and excitement of this hasty trip. Ultimately, Baptiste crashes onto the veranda at his family home in time for the New Year’s celebration.

Grandma Lena’s Big Ol’ Turnip by Julie Hearn. New York: Atheneum, 2005. Hardback, $16.95. 32 pages. (ISBN 0-689-87690-4)

A folktale with Russian origins, this tale of a turnip portrays a beautiful sense of community, cooperation, and kindness in an extended African American family. Grandma Lena studies seed catalogs during the winter to find seeds for turnips, and then the children help her to plant them when the ground is warm enough in the spring. When the turnips are ready to harvest in June, one is so big that it takes the whole family, including the dog and the toddler, to pull it from the ground! The turnip and greens are then creatively turned into varied soul food dishes. Colorful illustrations throughout the book express the individual personalities of the family in this charming and warm little book.

The Minister’s Daughter by Julie Hearn. New York: Atheneum, 2005. Hardback, $16.95. 264 pages. (ISBN 0-689-87690-4)

Set in witch-crazed seventeenth-century England, this is an absorbing and complex story for both teens and adults. Drawn in part from Culpeper’s Complete Herbal (1616-1664), and folklore about fairies in Devon and Cornwall, the narrative weaves historical fiction and the supernatural into one gripping account. To provide varied perspective, Hearn has included a portion of testimony from the Salem, Massachusetts witch trials of 1692. In this novel, two daughters of a new minister, along with an herbalist/midwife grandmother and her lively granddaughter, are caught in a complex web of lies and accusations. The suspense-filled plot is rich with British folklore, pixies, and fairies. Included in the text is a bibliography of works related to the early witch hunts in England and the United States.