Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales
by Virginia Hamilton (Author)
A collection of twenty-five African-American folktales focuses on strong female characters and includes Little Girl and Bruh Rabby, Catskinella, and Annie Christmas.
In the tradition of Hamilton's The People Could Fly and In the Beginning, a dramatic new collection of 25 compelling tales from the female African American storytelling tradition. Each story focuses on the role of women--both real and fantastic--and their particular strengths, joys and sorrows. Full-color illustrations.
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Kirkus Review - Children
It's hard to envision the shelf—children's or adults'—on which this volume doesn't belong.
School Library Journal
Gr 4 - Up—Outstanding interpreters of, and contributors to, black culture for children, Virginia Hamilton and the Dillons have produced yet another superb offering, of value to all ages and segments of our society. Her Stories contains 20 brief pieces, equally (if sometimes rather abitrarily) distributed in 5 sections: animal tales, fairy tales, supernatural stories, "folkways and legends," and true tales (including Hamilton's own account of this book's genesis). Vernacular rather than dialectal, the fluid writing recalls the oral sources of these tales (there is a source bibliography, and comments on provenance follow each tale). As the title implies, the stories all feature females, but there is nothing predictable about the roles they play. Funny, touching, scary, magical, and inspiring by turns, the characters are as varied as the narratives—and as the tastes of readers. The Dillons' electric-hued acrylic paintings (16 full-page, several vignettes, and an enticing jacket) catch the tales' multiple moods. The book is a gallery of beautiful women of color. Entrancing and important, this notable collaboration deserves a wide success.—Patricia (Dooley) Lothrop Green, St. George's School, Newport, RI.
Copyright 1995 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Publishers Weekly
The distinguished creators of The People Could Fly and Many Thousand Gone return for this striking collection of 17 tales, each featuring an African American woman or girl as the main character. True stories, ghost stories, folk legends, classic fairy tales, tall tales and more indicate the breadth of African American cultural traditions. Retold from a variety of sources, the stories flow smoothly in Hamilton's expertly measured prose. The full-color illustrations, one per story, are lush and detailed, like the Dillons' work in Pish, Posh, Said Hieronymus Bosch. In a handsome oversize format, the book itself reflects unusually high production values. Text and art are laid against a buff background in a sophisticated but uncrowded page design, and the volume is bound with an unusually heavy casing. It will need that sturdiness, for these are tales to be read over and over again. Ages 6-up. (Nov.)
Copyright 1995 Publisher’s Weekly, LLC Used with permission.
