Recommended Reads from the Children's Collection @ the Education Library

Three delightful tales from a renowned Nigerian storyteller introduce a chapter-book heroine who is every bit as mighty as she is small.

Omar and his younger brother, Hassan, have spent most of their lives in Dadaab, a refugee camp in Kenya. Life is hard there: never enough food, achingly dull, and without access to the medical care Omar knows his nonverbal brother needs. So when Omar has the opportunity to go to school, he knows it might be a chance to change their future . . . but it would also mean leaving his brother, the only family member he has left, every day.

What does it mean to be loyal? Mathew and Mugo, two boys--one white, one black--share an uneasy friendship in Kenya in the 1950s. They're friends even though Mathew's dad owns the land and everything on it. They're friends despite the difference in their skin color. And they're friends in the face of the growing Mau Mau rebellion, which threatens British settlers with violence as black Kenyans struggle to win back their land and freedom. But suspicions and accusations are escalating, and an act of betrayal could change everything.

For Kariuki, life in a small village in Kenya is one great adventure. One day Kariuki meets Nigel, a boy from England who has come to visit his grandfather, the fearsome Bwana Ruin, who owns the farm where the villagers work. The villagers call Nigel the mzungu boy (westerner), and view him with suspicion and fear; but not Kariuki.

For almost fifty years apartheid forced the young people of South Africa to live apart as Blacks, Whites, Indians, and "Coloreds." This unique and dramatic collection of stories -- by native South African and Carnegie Medalist Beverley Naidoo -- is about young people's choices in a beautiful country made ugly by injustice.

Finally, Amira is twelve. Old enough to wear a toob, old enough for new responsibilities. And maybe old enough to go to school in Nyala-- Amira's one true dream. But life in her peaceful Sudanese village is shattered when the Janjaweed arrive. The terrifying attackers ravage the town and unleash unspeakable horrors. After she loses nearly everything, Amira needs to dig deep within herself to find the strength to make the long journey-- on foot-- to safety at a refugee camp. Her days are tough at the camp, until the gift of a simple red pencil opens her mind-- and all kinds of possibilities.

An unforgettable novel based on the life of Ricky Richard Anywar, who at age fourteen was forced to fight as a soldier in the guerrilla army of notorious Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony.

South Africa, 1976. Joshua lives with his mother in the maid's room, in the backyard of their wealthy white employers' house in the city by the sea. He doesn't quite understand the events going on around him. But when he rescues a stranger and riots begin to sweep the country, Joshua has to face the world beneath--the world deep inside him--to make heartbreaking choices that will change his life forever.

A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about two eleven-year-olds in Sudan, a girl in 2008 and a boy in 1985. The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours' walk from her home: she makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay. Enduring every hardship, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to intersect with Nya's in an astonishing and moving way.

Amadou counts the things that matter. For two years what has mattered are the number of cacao pods he and his brother, Seydou, can chop down in a day. The higher the number the safer they are because the bosses won't beat them. The higher the number the closer they are to paying off their debt and returning home. The problem is Amadou doesn't know how much he and Seydou owe, and the bosses won't tell him. Tricked into forced labor on a plantation in the Ivory Coast, with no hope of escape, all they can do is try their best to stay alive--until Khadija comes into their lives. She fights bravely every day, attempting escape again and again. But finally, the bosses break her, and what happens next to the brother he has always tried to protect almost breaks Amadou. The old impulse to run is suddenly awakened.

Nhamo is a Shona girl living in a traditional village in Mozambique in 1981. When her family tries to force her into a marriage with a cruel man, she flees. What was supposed to have been a short boat trip across the border into Zimbabwe, where she hoped to find her father, turns into an adventure filled with challenges and danger that lasts a year.

When he was a boy, Luc's mother would warn him about the "mock men" living in the trees by their home -- chimpanzees whose cries would fill the night. Luc is older now, his mother gone. He lives in a house of mistreated orphans, barely getting by. Then a man calling himself Prof comes to town with a mysterious mission. He offers Luc a job. Together, Luc and Prof head into the rough, dangerous jungle in order to study the elusive chimpanzees. There, Luc finally finds a new family -- and must act when that family comes under attack.

Just down the road from their families, Deo and his friends play soccer in the dusty fields of Zimbabwe, cheered on by Deo's older brother, Innocent. It is a day like any other ..until the soldiers arrive and Deo and Innocent are forced to run for their lives, fleeing the wreckage of their village for the distant promise of safe haven. Along the way, they face the prejudice and poverty that await refugees everywhere, and must rely on the kindness of people they meet to make it through.

A new pair of shoes, a university degree, a husband--these are the things that a girl dreams of in a Nigerian village. And with a government scholarship right around the corner, everyone can see that these dreams aren't too far out of reach. But the girl's dreams turn to nightmares when her village is attacked by Boko Haram, in the middle of the night. Kidnapped, she is taken with other girls and women into the forest where she is forced to follow her captors' radical beliefs and watch as her best friend slowly accepts everything she's been told. Still, the girl defends her existence. As impossible as escape may seem, her life--her future--is hers to fight for.

Cry, the Beloved Country, is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice.

After fleeing the Congo as refugees, Tina and her mother arrived in Kenya looking for the chance to build a new life. Her mother found work as a maid for Roland Greyhill, one of the city's most respected business leaders. But Tina soon learns that the Greyhill fortune was made from a life of corruption and crime. So when her mother is found shot to death in Mr. Greyhill's personal study, she knows exactly who's behind it. Tina spends the next four years surviving on the streets alone, working as a master thief for the Goondas, Sangui City's local gang. It's a job for the Goondas that finally brings Tina back to the Greyhill estate, giving her the chance for vengeance she's been waiting for. Finally uncovering the incredible truth about who killed her mother--and why--keeps her holding on.

When Amandla wakes up on her fifteenth birthday, she knows it's going to be one of her mother's difficult days. Her mother has had another vision. This one involves Amandla wearing a bedsheet loosely stitched as a dress. An outfit, her mother says, is certain to bring Amandla's father back home. But in truth, Amandla's father has long been gone and even her mother's memory of him is hazy. Many of her mother's memories from before Amandla was born are hazy. It's just one of the many reasons people in Sugar Town give them strange looks--that and the fact her mother is white and Amandla is Black. When Amandla finds a mysterious address in the bottom of her mother's handbag along with a large amount of cash, she decides it's finally time to get answers about her mother's life. With her best friends at her side, Amandla is ready to take on family secrets and the devil himself.

Hiding behind a chair, five-year-old Emma can't see her mother being murdered, but she hears everything. When the assassins leave, the terrified girl stumbles away from the scene, motivated only by the memory of her mother's last words: "You must not die, Emma!" Emma is taken in by an old Hutu woman who risks her own life to hide the child. A quiet bond grows between the two, but long after the war ends, Emma is still haunted by nightmares. When the country establishes gacaca courts to allow victims to face their tormentors, Emma is uneasy and afraid. But Emma finds the courage to begin the long journey to healing.

This collection of stories is about young people's choices in a beautiful country made ugly by injustice. Each story is set in a different decade during the last half of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, and features fictional characters caught up in very real events.

Set against the backdrop of Zimbabwe's brutal recent history, Diamond Boy is the story of a young man who succumbs to greed but finds his way out through a transformative journey to South Africa in search of his missing sister, in search of freedom, and in search of himself.

Thirteen-year-old Habo has always been different--light eyes, yellow hair and white skin. His father, unable to accept Habo, abandons the family; his mother can scarcely look at him. His brothers are cruel and the other children never invite him to play. Only his sister Asu loves him well. But even Asu can't take the sting away when the family is forced from their small Tanzanian village, and Habo knows he is to blame. Seeking refuge in Mwanza, Habo and his family journey across the Serengeti. His aunt is glad to open her home until she sees Habo, and then she is only afraid. Suddenly, Habo has a new word for himself: Albino. But they hunt Albinos in Mwanza because Albino body parts are thought to bring good luck. To survive, Habo must not only run, but find a way to love and accept himself.

Emilia and Teo's lives changed in a terrifying instant when a bird strike brought down the plane their stunt pilot mothers were flying. Teo's mother died immediately, but Em's survived, determined to raise Teo according to his late mother's wishes-in a place where he won't be discriminated against because of the color of his skin. But in 1930s America, a white woman raising a black adoptive son alongside a white daughter is too often seen as a threat. Seeking a home where her children won't be held back by ethnicity or gender, Rhoda brings Em and Teo to Ethiopia, and all three fall in love with the beautiful, peaceful country. But that peace is shattered by the threat of war with Italy, and teenage Em and Teo are drawn into the conflict.

In the Libyan city of Ghadames, Malika watches her merchant father depart on one of his caravan expeditions. She too yearns to travel to distant cities, and longs to learn to read like her younger brother. But nearly 12 years old, and soon to be of marriageable age, Malika knows that - like all Muslim women - she must be content with a more secluded, more limited life. Then one night a stranger enters her home . . . someone who disrupts the traditional order of things and who affects Malika in unexpected ways.

Thirteen-year-old Shida, whose name means "problem" in Swahili, certainly has a lot of problems in her life -- her father is dead, her depressed mother is rumored to be a witch, and everyone in her rural Tanzanian village expects her to marry rather than pursue her dream of becoming a healer. So when the village's elders make a controversial decision to move their people to a nearby village, Shida welcomes the change. Surely the opportunity to go to school and learn from a nurse can only mean good things. However, after a series of puzzling misfortunes plague the new village, Shida must prove to her people that moving was the right decision, and that they can have a better life in their new home.

Patricia C. McKissack presents the diary of thirteen-year-old Nzingha, a sixteenth-century West African princess who loves to hunt and hopes to lead her kingdom one day against the invasion of the Portuguese slave traders.

South Africa, 1976. Joshua lives with his mother in the maid's room, in the backyard of their wealthy white employers' house in the city by the sea. He doesn't quite understand the events going on around him. But when he rescues a stranger and riots begin to sweep the country, Joshua has to face the world beneath--the world deep inside him--to make heartbreaking choices that will change his life forever.

For fifteen-year-old Shamiso, hope is nothing but a leap into darkness. Grief-stricken and confused after her father's mysterious death in a car crash, Shamiso moves with her mother from England to Zimbabwe in order to pick up the pieces--returning to an extended family and a world she hardly remembers. For Tanyaradzwa, a classmate whose life has been turned upside down by a cancer diagnosis, hope is the only reason to keep fighting. As an unexpected friendship blossoms between them and the two girls navigate the increasingly uncertain political situation in Zimbabwe, Tanyaradzwa helps Shamiso confront her fear of loss.

For Poni, life in her small village in southern Sudan is simple and complicated at the same time. Stay in school. Beat up any boy who tries to show attention. Watch out for the dangers in the river. But then the war comes, there is only one thing for Poni to do. Run. She must then make a long, dusty trek across the east African countryside and finds her way to the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, where she hopes to be reunited with her family. And if she is lucky, she will one day be able to convince the authorities that she is worthy to go to the land of opportunity. But the misery in Kakuma is almost overwhelming, and sooner than Poni could have imagined, she is on the run again. With single-minded determination, Poni survives hell and back, but she cannot escape the war's devastating psychological effects.

When the villagers of Bophelong are forced to leave their houses and resettle in a barren "homeland," thirteen-year-old Naledi and her younger brother join in a school demonstration and learn that the South African government treats even children who dissent with brutality.

Mosquitoes don't bite Nala Simiyu. It's part of who she is, like being a half-Kenyan seventh-grader whose mother is in a wheelchair. But when a schoolmate's father--who happens to head up a large drug company--learns of Nala's special power, the excitement begins. After helping out with mosquito research, Nala has the chance to travel to Kenya to investigate mosquitoes' reactions to her father's family. All goes well until a man heartbroken by his daughter's death from malaria kidnaps Nala.

When a military coup occurs in the constantly war-torn African country of Nagala, teenage Paul is forced to flee into the open countryside to avoid enemy soldiers who seek his life.

Lumush and his friends live with their families in Railway Estate, spending their free time in the countryside or in the yards behind the estate, playing a game of chance called pata potea next to the wreck of an old car. When the boys' attention begins to wander farther, they discover a deserted house believed to be haunted. As they explore the house, they learn that it's not ghosts they have to fear but the malevolent Mwachuma. By day he works in his junkyard, but by night he and his accomplices steal coffee from the railway yard and smuggle it into the "ghost house." As the young boys are drawn into this criminal underworld, they face a mounting danger that threatens both themselves and their families.

A collection of ten short stories and autobiographical accounts by authors of various races expose the conditions of racism in South Africa.

Khosi lives with her grandmother Gogo, her sister Zi, and her mother in a matchbox house on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. In that shantytown, it seems like somebody is dying all the time. Her Gogo goes to a traditional healer when there is trouble, but her mother, who is wasting away before their eyes, refuses even to go to the doctor. She is afraid and Khosi doesn't know what it is that makes the blood come up from her choking lungs. Can Khosi take her to the doctor? Gogo asks. No, says Mama, Khosi must stay in school. Only education will save Khosi and Zi from the poverty and ignorance of the old Zulu ways. But a witch's curse, her mother's wasting sorrow, and a neighbor's accusations send her and Gogo scrambling off to the sangoma's hut in search of a healing potion.

When Jodie's mother decides they are moving to Sierre Leone, Jodie feels as if her world is falling apart. But she knows her worries are over as soon as she lays eyes on Khadi, a village girl. From the first moment, the two girls are inseparable--carrying water, collecting firewood, and working in the rice fields together. Everything seems perfect to Jodie until the day the entire village breaks into a wild dance. Suddenly strange things start to happen--Khadi disappears daily, and even Jodie's mother seems nervous. "Secret Society, Jodie. Stay away from it," she warns her. But Jodie wonders what this Society is all about. Surely it can't hurt anyone if she just checks it out. Or can it?

Raised by their grandparents in a remote area of Ethiopia, Saba and her brother are kidnapped and brought to Gondar, home of the emperor and his court. Saba learns things about her family and herself that turn her whole world upside down.

Ato hasn't visited his grandmother's house since he was seven. He's heard the rumors that she's a witch, and his mother has told him he must never sit on the old couch on her porch. Now here he is, on that exact couch wondering if the rumors are true. What's more, there's a freshly dug hole in her yard that Ato suspects may be a grave meant for him. Meanwhile at school, Ato and his friends have entered a competition to win entry to Nnoma, the island bird sanctuary that Ato's father helped create. But something is poisoning the community garden where their project is housed, and Ato sets out to track down the culprit. In doing so, he brings his estranged mother and grandmother back together, and begins healing the wounds left on the family by his father's death years before.

Morengaru, a strong young hunter, has been cast out by both his mother's people, the Kikuyu, and his father's people, the Masai. Every day he misses human companionship, and soon he feels as though he's becoming more like the animals around him. When Morengaru has the chance to belong again, he seizes the opportunity. Then he faces the greatest challenge of his life: living among the baboons, still clinging to his humanity, hoping someday to return to his people.

Discover the exhilarating diversity of the African continent in storyteller Atinuke's kaleidoscopic nonfiction guide to the people, flora, and fauna of all fifty-five countries.

Demonstrates the diversity of the African continent by describing daily life in some of its fifty-three nations.

Through portraits of ten historical figures - from Menes, the first ruler to be called Pharaoh, to Queen Idia, a sixteenth-century power broker, visionary, and diplomat -African Icons takes readers on a journey across Africa to meet some of the great leaders and thinkers whose ideas built a continent and shaped our world.

African Proverbs for All Ages is a beautifully-illustrated, engaging picture book about the power of proverbs, how they evolve over time, and the wisdom of various cultures in Africa.

When fourteen-year-old William Kamkwamba's Malawi village was hit by a drought, everyone's crops began to fail. Without enough money for food, let alone school, William spent his days in the library . . . and figured out how to bring electricity to his village.

Born in Ghana, West Africa, with one deformed leg, he was dismissed by most people--but not by his mother, who taught him to reach for his dreams. As a boy, Emmanuel hopped to school more than two miles each way, learned to play soccer, left home at age thirteen to provide for his family, and, eventually, became a cyclist. He rode an astonishing four hundred miles across Ghana in 2001, spreading his powerful message: disability is not inability.

In January 2011, in a moment that captured the hearts of people all over the world, thousands of Egypt's students, library workers, and demonstrators surrounded the great Library of Alexandria and joined hands, forming a human chain to protect the building. They chanted "We love you, Egypt!" as they stood together for the freedom the library represented.

Miriam Makeba, a Grammy Award-winning South African singer, rose to fame in the hearts of her people at the pinnacle of apartheid--a brutal system of segregation similar to American Jim Crow laws. Mama Africa, as they called her, raised her voice to help combat these injustices at jazz clubs in Johannesburg; in exile, at a rally beside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and before the United Nations. Set defiantly in the present tense, this biography offers readers an intimate view of Makeba's fight for equality.

Nelson Mandela's autobiography, LONG WALK TO FREEDOM, offers a glimpse into the mind of a great leader, admired across the globe for his dedication to the struggles against apartheid in South Africa.

In Njau, Gambia, people simply dropped the bags and went on their way. One plastic bag became two. Then ten. Then a hundred. The bags accumulated in ugly heaps alongside roads. Water pooled in them, bringing mosquitoes and disease. Some bags were burned, leaving behind a terrible smell. Some were buried, but they strangled gardens. They killed livestock that tried to eat them. Something had to change. Isatou Ceesay was that change. She found a way to recycle the bags and transform her community. This inspirational true story shows how one person's actions really can make a difference in our world.

Seeds of Change: Planting a Path to Peace brings to life the empowering story of Wangari Maathai, the first African woman, and environmentalist, to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Engaging narrative and vibrant images paint a robust portrait of this inspiring champion of the land and of women's rights.

Wangari Maathai received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her efforts to lead women in a nonviolent struggle to bring peace and democracy to Africa through its reforestation. Her organization planted over thirty million trees in thirty years. This beautiful picture book tells the story of an amazing woman and an inspiring idea.

Aphorisms are universal. They give guidance, context and instruction for life's issues, and they help us understand each other and the world around us. We use them every day, yet never think about where they came from or why they exist. This illustrated collection brings us classic sayings from the places where this shared wisdom began. Ashanti, Sukuma, Akan and Kikuyu: all of these cultures use the portable and easily shared knowledge contained in aphorisms, and from these cultures and more this communal knowledge spread.

On June 16, 1976, Hector Pieterson, an ordinary boy, lost his life after getting caught up in what was supposed to be a peaceful protest. Black South African students were marching against a new law requiring that they be taught half of their subjects in Afrikaans, the language of the White government. The story's events unfold from the perspectives of Hector, his sister, and the photographer who captured their photo in the chaos.

In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.

Discover the true story of how environmentalist Farmer Tantoh is transforming the landscape in his home country of Cameroon. When Tantoh Nforba was a child, his fellow students mocked him for his interest in gardening. Today he's an environmental hero, bringing clean water and bountiful gardens to the central African nation of Cameroon.

Donna Jo Napoli and Kadir Nelson tell the true story of Wangari Muta Maathai, known as "Mama Miti," who in 1977 founded the Green Belt Movement, an African grassroots organization that has empowered many people to mobilize and combat deforestation, soil erosion, and environmental degradation.

This true story of Wangari Maathai, environmentalist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is a shining example of how one woman's passion, vision, and determination inspired great change.

The Tuareg have been traveling through the Sahara Desert on camelback for centuries, and the men take great pride in their camel-riding skills. As Manda leaves his village, he is eager to see the great riders in the races.

William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi, a country where magic ruled and modern science was mystery. It was also a land withered by drought and hunger. But William had read about windmills, and he dreamed of building one that would bring to his small village a set of luxuries that only 2 percent of Malawians could enjoy: electricity and running water. His neighbors called him misala--crazy--but William refused to let go of his dreams. With a small pile of once-forgotten science textbooks; some scrap metal, tractor parts, and bicycle halves; and an armory of curiosity and determination, he embarked on a daring plan to forge an unlikely contraption and small miracle that would change the lives around him.

Trevor Noah, shares his personal story and the injustices he faced while growing up half black, half white in South Africa under and after apartheid in this young readers' adaptation of his adult memoir.

Through personal narratives and photographs, this book brings together twelve South African teenagers whose distinct voices illuminate their experiences under apartheid and the joyous yet challenging years of freedom since. In their own words, these teens reveal what it was like to grow up in a country bitterly divided by racial separation, violence, and poverty. Although they speak with a diverse range of voices, experiences, and attitudes, these young people are united in the belief that the new South Africa will truly be different from the one they have known.

As a child in a rural village in Sierra Leone, Mariatu Kamara lived peacefully surrounded by family and friends. Rumors of rebel attacks were no more than a distant worry. But when 12-year-old Mariatu set out for a neighboring village, she never arrived. Heavily armed rebel soldiers, many no older than children themselves, attacked and tortured Mariatu. During this brutal act of senseless violence they cut off both her hands. Stumbling through the countryside, Mariatu miraculously survived. The sweet taste of a mango, her first food after the attack, reaffirmed her desire to live, but the challenge of clutching the fruit in her arms reinforced the grim new reality that stood before her.

Before one fateful April day, Jeanne lived the life of a typical Rwandan girl. She fought with her little sister, went to school, and teased her brother. Then, in one horrifying night, everything changed. Political troubles unleashed a torrent of violence upon the Tutsi ethnic group. Jeanne's family, all Tutsis, fled their home and tried desperately to reach safety. They--along with nearly 1 million others--did not survive. The only survivor of her family's massacre, Jeanne witnessed unspeakable acts. But through courage, wits, and sheer force of will, she survived.

Maya Angelou joins a well-known photojournalist to tell the story of an eight-year-old Ndebele girl named Thandi, who lives in painted village in South Africa with her mother, her aunts, her mischievous younger brother, and her best friend, a chicken. Share the joys and challenges of growing up between two worlds--traditional African craft passed down from mother to daughter, and modern life found in the bright, colorful motifs of the murals and beadwork--and learn about a different culture through a new friend.

The captivating stories of six of Africa's most remarkable royal women and the eras in which they lives - from 1473 B.C. to the present. Some lived in great luxury as the wives and advisers of the supreme rulers; others lived in exile as freedom fighters. The rise of the slave trade and the arrival of European colonists unsettled the entire continent and forced rulers to find ways to govern and protect their kingdoms. Consequently, many of these royal women ruled in extremely difficult times, marked by palace intrigue, foreign invasion, and harrowing adventure.

Long regarded as Africa's preeminent Francophone novelist, Laye (1928-1980) herein marvels over his mother's supernatural powers, his father's distinction as the village goldsmith, and his own passage into manhood, which is marked by animistic beliefs and bloody rituals of primeval origin. Eventually, he must choose between this unique place and the academic success that lures him to distant cities. More than an autobiography of one boy, this is the universal story of sacred traditions struggling against the encroachment of a modern world.

The Well of Truth is a humorous Egyptian folktale about three great friends, Goat, Rooster, and Donkey. All three friends love the sweet taste of clover. One day, they decide to try their hand at farming, and they plant an entire field of clover. They patiently tend to the field and wait for the crop to grow large enough to harvest. Unfortunately, Donkey becomes impatient and one night sneaks out into the field to taste the clover. However, he can't stop at just a taste and eventually eats the entire field. The friends wake up to find the field wiped out and accuse Donkey, who of course denies eating the clover. They all agree to go to the Well of Truth to find out who actually ate the clover, and the Donkey's guilt is exposed.

Whether warning children about the dangers of disobedience or demonstrating that the underdog can, and often does, win, these stories, through their depiction of wise animals as well as evil monsters, are universal in their portrayal of humanity, beasts, and the mystical.

In trying to determine which of his six sons to reward for saving his life, Anansi the Spider is responsible for placing the moon in the sky.

When Granny asks Pretty Salma to go to the market one day, she warns her not to talk to strangers. But cunning Mr. Dog tricks Salma, and before she knows it, he's wearing her stripy ntama, her pretty white beads, and her yellow sandals. And he's on his way to Granny's house!

The strongest mouse retells a folktale from East Africa, in which a mouse compares his strength with that of the other animals on the African savannah.

Young Mouse sets out to prove that he is the strongest animal around, not Elephant, as his grandfather suggests. Young listeners will eagerly join boastful Young Mouse's hunt for Elephant and cheer him on in his quest.

The Story is about a man who had a large bean farm. When his beans were about to ripen, he left his child to guard them from animals. As usual the Rabbit visited the farm and lured the child into eating almost all the beans in the farm...

After a stormy night, a farmer, searching for his lost calf, finds a baby eagle that has been blown out of its nest. He takes it home and raises it with his chickens. When a friend comes to visit one day, he tells the farmer that an eagle should be flying high in the sky, not staying on the ground. At last the friend carries the young eagle back into the mountains and places the great bird on a rocky ledge, just before sunrise. As the air is filled with golden light and the sun appears, the friend cries, "Fly, Eagle, fly!" and the eagle raises its wings and soars upward, out of sight.

When the terrifying Iroko-man tries to take a woodcarver's first-born child as partial payment for bringing fertility to his village, the father must find a clever solution.