In this trickster tale from West Africa, Anansi the spider sets out to retrieve all the stories of the world from Nyami, the sky god.

The sky god Nyame owns all the stories in the world. He keeps them to himself in a box in his kingdom in the clouds. But Anansi thinks the stories should be shared by all creatures. So one day he strikes a bargain with the sky god. If Anansi can trick some of the earth’s fiercest and quickest creatures, Nyame will share his stories. Learn how Anansi wins the box of stories in this ancient tale from West Africa.

Anansi The Trickster Spider - Volumes One and Two (16 short stories) The stories featured in this book introduce Anansi the Spider, a traditional African trickster character. Anansi is as clever as he is lazy and he loves to prove just how smart he is by tricking the people of the village and the animals of the jungle. Luckily Anansi is not always as clever as he likes to think he is. Sometimes everything backfires on him and he becomes the victim of his own tricks. This book contains 16 short stories that were originally published as two eBook volumes, available to download from Amazon. These stories are: - Anansi and the gum doll - How Anansi got to ride Tiger - How Anansi turned an ear of corn into one hundred goats - How Anansi won the stories of the Sky God - Why spiders stay on the ceiling - Anansi and the witch named 'Five' - Anansi and the pot of wisdom - Anansi and the Tommy (Thompson Gazelle) - How Anansi missed four parties on one night - Anansi invites Turtle to tea - Anansi, Fly and Ant win the sun - Anansi and the talking melon - Anansi and the moss covered rock - Why Anansi has thin, long legs - Anansi and the field of corn - Anansi and the tug of war For FREE Anansi themed activities and downloads visit www.anansi-spider.com

Collection of traditional folk tales introduces a host of interesting people and unusual animals — among them "The Cricket and the Toad," "The Tortoise and His Broken Shell," and "The Boy in the Drum."

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents Kwame Mbalia's epic fantasy, a middle grade American Gods set in a richly-imagined world populated with African American folk heroes and West African gods. Seventh grader Tristan Strong feels anything but strong ever since he failed to save his best friend when they were in a bus accident together. All he has left of Eddie is the journal his friend wrote stories in. Tristan is dreading the month he's going to spend on his grandparents' farm in Alabama, where he's being sent to heal from the tragedy. But on his first night there, a sticky creature shows up in his bedroom and steals Eddie's notebook. Tristan chases after it--is that a doll?--and a tug-of-war ensues between them underneath a Bottle Tree. In a last attempt to wrestle the journal out of the creature's hands, Tristan punches the tree, accidentally ripping open a chasm into the MidPass, a volatile place with a burning sea, haunted bone ships, and iron monsters that are hunting the inhabitants of this world. Tristan finds himself in the middle of a battle that has left black American folk heroes John Henry and Brer Rabbit exhausted. In order to get back home, Tristan and these new allies will need to entice the god Anansi, the Weaver, to come out of hiding and seal the hole in the sky. But bartering with the trickster Anansi always comes at a price. Can Tristan save this world before he loses more of the things he loves?

Many African stories, whether or not they are about Kwaku Ananse the "spider man," are called, "Spider Stories." This book is about how that came to be. The African storyteller begins: "We do not really mean, we do not really mean that what we are about to say is true. A Story, a story; let it come, let it go." And it tells that long, long ago there were no stories on earth for children to hear. All stories belonged to Nyame, the Sky God. Ananse, the Spider man, wanted to buy some of these stories, so he spun a web up to the sky and went up to bargain with the Sky God. The price the Sky God asked was Osebo, the leopard of-the-terrible-teeth, Mmboro the hornet who-stings-like-fire, and Mmoatia the fairy whom-men-never-see. How Ananse paid the price is told in a graceful and clever text, with forceful, lovely woodcut illustrations.