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.