Drawing on the rich vein of the African Ananse tradition, Ghanaian author Adwoa Badoe and Malian illustrator Baba Wague Diakite bring us a marvelously lively, witty and entertaining collection of ten tales about this spider trickster.

These Ananse tales deal with the important issues that face us all -- justice, money, food, marriage, vanity and self-respect. Sometimes Ananse succeeds and things go his way; other times he makes a fool of himself and is ashamed -- but never for a long time. Many elements of these stories can be found in other trickster tales -- those of African origin, like the Uncle Remus stories, and those of aboriginal American groups, like the coyote tales of North American native cultures and the jaguar tales from Central and South America.

ADWOA BADOE is a Ghanaian-born physician, storyteller, educator, writer and African dance instructor. She is the author of the novel Between Sisters, as well as several picture books, including The Pot of Wisdom, illustrated by Baba Wagué Diakité and Nana’s Cold Days, illustrated by Bushra Junaid.

Adwoa Badoe's profile page

BABA WAGUÉ DIAKITÉ is an award-winning artist, ceramicist, writer and storyteller. His book The Hunterman and the Crocodile was named a Coretta Scott King Honor Book. The Magic Gourd (Africana Book Awards Honor Book) and The Hatseller and the Monkeys (Aesop Prize) both received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. I Lost My Tooth in Africa, written by his daughter Penda Diakité and illustrated by Wagué, won the Africana Book Award for Best Book for Young Children. Diakité is also the author/illustrator of Mee-Ann and the Magic Serpent, and he is the illustrator of Jamari’s Drum (by Eboni Bynum and Roland Jackson) and The Pot of Wisdom (by Adwoa Badoe), all Groundwood titles.

He is the founder and director of the Ko-Falen Cultural Center in Bamako, Mali, an organization that promotes cultural, artistic and educational exchanges between people of the US and Mali through art workshops, dance, music and ceremony. He is married to Portland artist Ronna Neuenschwander and divides his time between Bamako and Portland, Oregon.

Baba Wagué Diakité's profile page