Anansi and the Talking Melon

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kimmel, Eric A.1994. ANANSI AND THE TALKING MELON. Ill. by Janet Stevens. New York, NY: Holiday House, Inc. ISBN 0-8234-1104-4

AWARD(S) and STARS

• Children’s Choice, 1995
• Kirkus Book Review Stars, 1994

PLOT SUMMARY

Visiting Elephant’s garden, Anansi the Spider is enticed by the juicy melons. After Elephant leaves his garden, Anansi uses a thorn to bore a hole into a melon, climbs in and eats until he’s too big to squeeze out. He decides to wait until he’s smaller to leave, but in the meantime, Elephant returns. Bored waiting, Anansi decides to play a trick on Elephant. He talks from inside the melon making Elephant think he has grown a talking melon. Impressed with his accomplishment, Elephant takes the melon to the king. As he journeys to the king, he shares his “talking melon” with other animals. Anansi continues to amuse himself by tricking all the animals and even the king. In the end, after Anansi escapes the melon, he continues his tomfoolery by pretending to be talking bananas.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

One of the Anansi tales retold by Eric A. Kimmel, Anansi and the Talking Melon exemplifies the trickster tale. Through the simple text and plot, Kimmel draws the listener in. The repetitive text, well-timed rhythm and humorous animal characters make this story a great tale to be read aloud or reenacted.

In Janet Stevens’ line-and-wash drawings, she uses vibrant colors to bring to life the comical animal characters. Each character’s expressions and movements are well-defined in the illustrations. Most Anansi tales originate from West Africa or the Caribbean, yet it’s difficult to discern this in the illustrations. Viewing each page, the focus is purely on the animated animals rather than the setting in which the tale originated.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

•  Booklist (Feb. 15, 1994) – “With perfect pacing and repetition and with surprising reversals up to the very last page, this is a great choice for reading aloud and storytelling.”
• Kirkus Reviews (1994) – “Stevens's funny animals are delightfully expressive, while Anansi's spider-level perspectives provide generous close-ups of melons, a hippo, a warthog, et al. Good-spirited tomfoolery, with storytelling that reels along with the ease of a seasoned prankster.”

CONNECTIONS

• Students can read other Anansi tales comparing and contrasting the elements of each story (author, illustrator, Anansi characteristics, other animals, trick played, etc.):
• ANANSI  AND THE MOSS-COVERED ROCK retold by Eric Kimmel, ISBN 978-0823407989
• ANANSI GOES FISHING retold by Eric Kimmel, ISBN 978-1591126799
• ANANSI FINDS A FOOL retold by Verna Aardema, ISBN 978-0803711655
• ANANSI AND THE SKY KINGDOM retold by Bobby and Sherry Norfolk, ISBN 978-0874838817
• Discuss the elements of a trickster tale. Research and read other stories with tricksters identifying the trickster, where the story originated, tricks played and authentic characteristics of the characters within the tales.  Some possible tricksters to research are: coyote, raven, rabbit and fox.
• Due to the simple repetitive text, this story lends itself well to be recreated in a reader’s theater. Simple animal masks can be used to portray each animal and a crown for the king.