“Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales. By: Virginia Hamilton

“Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales.  By: Virginia Hamilton

Illustrated By: Leo & Diane Dillon

The Blue Sky Press; New York

Copy Right: 1995

(Award Winner)

This was a wonderful, unique collection of African Folklore and fairy tales.   They were all so unique, ranging from the supernatural including vampires, witches and owls to Animal tales, even true tales.   The story of Millie Evans who recounts her life as a slave who lived through the emancipation.  Another story told of a mermaid who took a young girl under the water to explore with her.  When the girl told her parents of the mermaid they demanded that she take them to her.  The girl calls for the mermaid to come to the surface, and much to her horror her father shoots and kills her.  When the young girl returned to the river the next day she called for the mermaid and when no one appeared she walked into the water and never came out.

            These were all very interesting stories that would be great to share with a class or for students to use as part of an African American project.  I made a text to text connection from this book with one called “the people could fly”, which was also African folklore also written by Virginia Hamilton.  I thought the text to world connection could be seen in that all cultures have their own folklore and fables.  Often they have similar bits and parts and share other commonalities.  This story also made me think of the book “The bamboo grove”.  It was another book wrote about cultural fables.