Told You Not To Do That! Anansi and the Pot of Beans by Bobby and Sherry Norfolk

On one morning Anansi the Spider went to see his Grandma Spider. He knocked on her door and asked if he could do some work for her.

"Good morning, Grandson!" she said, with a hug. "I want you to plant some beans in the garden!" She showed him what to do and then went back in to the kitchen.

It was hot and Anansi worked up a quite a sweat digging and planting in the hot sun. At last Grandma Spider came out with a pitcher of cold lemonade to cool him off. She told Anansi that she was going to go to the store for some spices for the beans, and warned him sternly not to touch the pot cooking on the stove. It was too hot and too heavy, she told him firmly, and set off to the market.

But the yummy smell rose and drifted out the window right to Anansi's nose. His mouth began to water.

It led Anansi inside to the stove, assuring himself that it couldn't hurt just to inhale the delicious smell a bit closer.

"I'm sure it's all right just to taste the beans, he thought.

And before Anansi knew it, he was slurping up spoonfuls of the beans. Just as he was stashing some of the beans in his hat, for a snack later, he heard the neighbors yelling at blackbirds in Grandma's garden. And when the neighbors and Grandma Spider came in, Anansi only had time to hide the purloined beans in his hat--on his head!

OWWW! They were hot! They were so hot Anansi was sweating and hopping around nervously, trying to pretend nothing was wrong. The neighbors were so impressed with his dancing that they started dancing with him!

"YEOOWW!" Anansi shouted, as he took off his hat. Beans flew everywhere!

And the burned-off hair never grew back on the head of Anansi the Spider--to this day--in Bobby and Sherry Norfolk's retelling of this story from Africa's folklore of that top trickster, Anansi, in their Anansí and the Pot of Beans (Story Cove) (August House Publishers). There are many stories about that too-clever-for-his-own-good trickster, Anansi, for youngsters who love to laugh. Pair this one with the charming and kid-friendly storytelling and illustrations of Eric Kimmel and Janet Stevens in their delightfulAnansi and the Moss-Covered Rock (Anansi the Trickster).

Beware! Let's Scare Bear by Yuko Katakawa

Mouse has just poured the green tea, and Spider, Fox, and Snake are assembled inside his hollow tree home to join him for their favorite snack!

Manju cake!

But just as they are about to chow down they hear heavy footsteps.

THUMP THUMP!

Bear was passing by!

Suddenly Mouse gets the urge to give big old Bear a scare. Fox gives it his best shot, daring to bare his fangs at the strongest animal in the woods. Bear bares his huge teeth and laughs at fox.

Spider spins his stickiest web, but Bear bats his way through it handily. Snake coils all around Bear, but one flex of his mighty muscles and Bear is free. Mouse's little BOO turns into a squeak when Bear dangles him by his tail and laughs an even bigger laugh.

"Only one thing scares me," said Bear.

The others waited breathlessly.

"Manju cake!" said Bear.

The horror, the very thought of manju, makes Bear, with a shiver and a shake, scuttle away to the safety of his den.

The others look at each other. They know what they have to do!

Giving Bear a few minutes to chill out, they take their whole plate of cakes and ....

They tossed, pitched, heaved, and volleyed all their manju cakes into Bear's cave.

Yuko Katakawa's traditional Japanese tale, Let's Scare Bear (Holiday House, 2019), ends with a few crumbs of the feast, one well-fed Bear, and and lots of laughs. There's nothing so satisfying as a well-paced trickster tale to tickle kid's giggles and give the would-be tricksters their due comeuppance, and Katakawa's charming illustrations tell the story well. Savvy youngsters may even notice the parallel with the American folktale of "The Tar Baby."

Says School Library Journal,"Katakawa makes great use of perspective and movement, encouraging page turns and effectively drawing the eye. . . . the arresting visuals and nicely cadenced text make this an excellent candidate for storytimes."

Don't Mess with MAMA! Mo Willems Presents... That Is Not A Good Idea by Mo Willems

"WHAT LUCK! DINNER!"

A dapper fox, obviously on the prowl, practically twirls his mustache and licks his chops as he spies a tempting and tasty entre, a guileless-looking, blue-babuska-wearing goose, clutching her wicker shopping basket.

He gallantly invites her for stroll and she demurely accepts.  The melodrama ratchets up incrementally, as she in turn accepts the suggestion for a walk in the woods and a visit to the foxy gentleman's kitchen, where he engagingly begins to prepare their lunch, a savory soup in an alarmingly large stock pot.

So ... you think you know where this one is going?

Well, not with the wickedly wry Mo Willems as the director of this little one-reeler thriller.

Casting his little melodrama in the format of a silent film short subject, Mo Willems provides medium shots of the Fox and his quarry with closeups of the unsuspecting stooge goose coyly concurring, alternating with gray-toned title frames in which six little goslings act as a Greek chorus, with appropriately fateful prophecies.

"THAT IS NOT A GOOD IDEA!"

The warning subtitles become increasingly dire, with considerable overacting by the juveniles, as Fox's nefarious plot thickens, until at last he invites Goose to come closer to the simmering pot to taste for that elusive missing ingredient!

"THAT IS REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY NOT A GOOD IDEA!"

But the seemingly hapless hen turns the tables on this well-turned-out scoundrel in a climactic tour de force that has the reader suddenly realizing whom+ those warnings were really for, in Mo Willems' latest, That Is Not a Good Idea! (Balzer & Bray, 2013). Willems ends this little tale of peril with a final frame showing the goose and her chicks enjoying a savory soup with, um, just the right missing ingredient. Willems puts the silent film format to perfect use here, with each page a frame of a hand-cranked short subject, with a conclusion that would have his foxy villain (were he not otherwise engaged in, er, seasoning the soup) crying "Curses! Foiled again!"

Roll credits!

How Willems manages to continue to top himself with each flawless picture book would confound even the Keystone Kops. With a few well-chosen facial expression lines and telling body language, peerless page pacing, and a wry wit that wins over all ages, this winner of multiple Caldecotts and Theodor Seuss Geisel Awards shows yet again that he is indeed the master of picture-book craft.

As Publishers Weekly puts it cunningly and punningly, "a wickedly droll poultry-in-peril yarn."

Robber Rat: The Highway Rat by Julia Donalson

THE HIGHWAY RAT WAS A BADDIE,
THE HIGHWAY RAT WAS A BEAST.

HE TOOK WHAT HE WANTED AND ATE WHAT HE TOOK.
HIS LIFE WAS ONE LONG FEAST.

With his swash well buckled, this highwayman rides the road in search, not of gold, but of goodies. No pastries or sweetmeats are safe in his territory.

All travelers live in fear of this gallante, riding, riding, riding along the highway, and the good country folk cringe at the sound of hoofbeats.

THE CREATURES WHO TRAVELED THE HIGHWAY
GREW THINNER AND THINNER AND THINNER.

WHILE THE HIGHWAY RAT GREW HORRIBLY FAT
FROM EATING UP EVERYONE'S DINNER.

Rabbit is down to his last wilted clover, the ants are left with leaves for lunch, and the good folk of the land obviously have need  of a hero when Duck comes waddling down the pike. Rat has run out of victims, and informs the fowl that he's next on the menu.

"I HAVE A SISTER WITH GOODIES YOU MIGHT PREFER," says Duck, thinking quickly.

This Duddley-Do-Right Duck is ready to right some wrongs, and his plan (cleverly riffing on that story of the three billy goats) just might work.

He sells the Robber Rat on his story of his sister's distant cavern just stuffed with a stash of sweets. With the Rat's mustachio whiskers all a-twirl at the thought, Duck guides him to the dark cave, and offers to hold his horse while the Highway Rat, faint with greedy goodie lust, ventures inside and falls prey to the old "echo in the cave" trick.

..."TAKE THEM... TAKE THEM... TAKE THEM..."

Our  Do-Good Duck dashes off on  the brigand's steed, and the Robber Rat gets his just desserts inside the dank empty cave, in Julia Donalson's latest rhyming frolic, The Highway Rat (Scholastic, 2013). Comic quatrains and sprightly humorous illustrations by artist Axel Scheffler set off this jolly tale of justice done. "This well-paced, rollicking tale is a guaranteed storytime treat," says School Library Journal.

Donalson's and Scheffler's other best-selling tasty treats include The Gruffalo, Stick Man, and Charlie Cook's Favorite Book.

Group Goulash: Fandango Stew by David Davis

Slim rubbed his grumbling belly as he rode into the town of Skinflint. "I'm so hungry I could eat a boiled boot," he said to his grandson Luis.

"Neither of us has a peso, Abuelo," said Luis. "Looks like fandango stew for supper again."

Slim grinned.

"CHILI'S GOOD, SO IS BARBECUE.
BUT NOTHING IS BETTER THAN FANDANGO STEW."

A hard-scrabble prairie town by the name of Skinflint doesn't look to be a profitable place for panhandling for a pair of peso-less vaqueros, and the flinty-eyed sheriff collars the two as soon as they tie up their pintos. But these two saddle-weary drifter grifters know how to cook up a deal wherever they land.

"We're not aiming to lasso a handout," said Slim. "My grandson and I rode in to treat Skinflint to a pot of fandango bean stew."

The sheriff narrowed his eyes. "I never heard tell of fandango beans."

Slim pulled a small bean out of his vest pocket and held it up in the air. He sang,

"CHILI IS GOOD; SO IS BARBECUE.
BUT NOTHING'S BETTER THAN FANDANGO STEW.

And we're off in this rootin' tootin' reprise of the familiar folktale Stone Soup. Slim and Luis whip out their well-worn kettle, drop in the fandango bean, and ask to trouble the penurious citizens of Skinflint for a bit of water to start the soup boiling. Even Skinflint can spare a gallon of water or so, and besides, every nosey soul in town is already gathering to see how these loco hombres plan to make a pot of soup out of just one bean.

Silver-tongued Slim sweet-talks the storekeepers and good ladies of Skinflint into pitching in whatever they have lying around, and before you can say "traditional trickster tale," the pretty schoolteacher, the Skinflint Culture Club, and even the sheriff are vying for the chance to add their heirloom tomatoes and garden-fresh veggies to the stew. Soon there's a savory soup simmering on Main Street, enough for everyone to have more than a taste, and the good wives hang up paper lanterns, pull out their best linens and crockery, and set up tables for everyone.

The mayor burped. "Isn't this the best stew shindig you buckaroo's ever saw?"

"Before you go, tell me where I can get some of those fandango beans," said the storekeeper.

"Any bean makes a fine fandango stew," grinned Slim. "Just add generosity and kindness."

David Davis' just published Fandango Stew (Sterling, 2011) gives a spicy Southwestern zest to this timeless tale of community cooperation, an evergreen story best known in Marcia Brown's Caldecott classic Stone Soup (Aladdin Picture Books). For classroom compare-and-contrast fun, pair these two, or add one of the more recent versions by Jon J. Muth, Stone Soup (Scholastic), with its Chinese setting, or Heather Forest's lovely Stone Soup (August House).