Anansi’s Party (trick!) Time

Anansi’s Party Time

Written By Eric Kimmel, Illustrated By Janet Stevens

http://www.amazon.com/Anansis-Party-Time-Eric-Kimmel/dp/0823422410/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380168535&sr=8-1&keywords=anansi%27s+party+time

Accessed September 25th, 2013

Summary

Anansi hasn’t forgiven Turtle for the trick Turtle played on Anansi months ago and Anansi has waited and waited for the perfect moment to get even! To get his revenge on Turtle, Anansi invites Turtle to a fake party, but every time Turtle slooooooowly arrives at the “party”, Anansi sends him right back home to complete a task for the “party”. When Turtle has finally brought; a dish, baked a desert (chocolate covered turtles), found a costume (a fluffy pink bunny suit) and made it back to Anansi’s house, the “party” is over! Turtle realizes that Anansi has played a trick on him, so Turtle devises his own “party” to trick Anansi. In the end Anansi gets a heaping helping of his own trickery as he gets stranded on the moon – but does Anansi learn his lesson? No! You can still look up at the moon to this day and see Anansi the spider plotting his revenge on Turtle.

Critical Analysis

Anansi, the trickster spider gets so wrapped up in his desire to trick Turtle that he fails to see that he cultivating the same feeling of revenge in Turtle that he has in himself. By propagating a cycle of vengeance, the tricks escalate until Anansi gets stuck on the moon! Anansi and the Party is crafted so cleverly that while kids are able to laugh over Anansi’s tricky antics, they are also able to see that all this effort he makes to get even, gets him in even more trouble that he was in when he started! Stevens charmingly illustrates the cycle of vengeance in a palatable silly way (Turtle wearing the pink bunny costume is hilarious!) that allows readers to learn from Anansi’s destructive behavior. The soft coloring and the cartoonish, animated faces of all the animal characters creates a light silly setting for allowing readers to explore the negative employment of the golden rule and how Anansi gets back exactly what he gives to Turtle – trouble!

Reviews

School Library Journal (09/01/2008):
K-Gr 2Children will delight in hearing this tale of the spider's comeuppance. After Anansi invites Turtle to a party just to play a trick on him, Turtle exacts his revenge. Almost every page, illustrated in acrylic ink and colored pencils, has some comical element. Laughs abound from the twisted path on the party map invitation that Anansi initially sends to Turtle and then later when Turtle sends a similar one back, to the hilarious costumes that Turtle tries on before he makes his choice of what to wear. Crocodile and Hippo loom large on the page underwater as they try to guess the mystery animal party game. Stevens has captured additional humor in the animals' droll facial features. Children will ask for repeated readings as they pause over the details in the artwork

Booklist (09/15/2008):
The latest in Kimmel-Stevens series about the spider that figures prominently in West African folklore shows how the trickster himself gets tricked, this time by a plodding turtle. Anansi invites Turtle to a party, but his directions are circuitous, Turtle takes forever arriving, and then Anansi sends him back for various items until Turtle has missed the party. Turtle retaliates with an invite of his own to his underwater home that necessitates Anansi holding on to a crab to keep from floating away, causing him to miss all the fun. Stevens mixed-media artwork adds to the story’s comic intensity.

Hornbook Guide to Children (01/01/2009):
Trickster Anansi invites Turtle to a party but neglects to provide him with crucial details; by the time slow Turtle makes his way home and back for each correction, the party's over. Tit-for-tat, Turtle invites Anansi to his house... In Kimmel's fifth Anansi entry, text and illustrations create an easy-to-follow narrative and lots of laughs (check out Turtle's pink bunny suit).

Connections

The Lion and the Mouse is another folk talk that shows readers the ideal employment of the golden rule and the cycle of compassion that it can instill. Unlike Anansi’s Party Time, in the tale of The Lion and the Mouse, readers see compassion put into action as two beasts rise above their nature and treat each other with empathy - and it is this kindness the Lion and the Mouse show each other that sets off a cycle of positive actions. By pairing Anansi’s Party Time and The Lion and the Mouse readers can see the direct results the actions of both these stories create and talk about which actions were right and which actions were wrong.

References

Booklist 09/15/2008 pg. 56 (EAN 9780823419227, Library Binding)

Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2009 pg. 29 (EAN 9780823419227, Library Binding)

Kimmel, Eric. (2009). Anansi’s Party Time. Ill by Janet Stevens. New York, NY: Holiday House. ISBN 9780823422418

Pinkney, Jerry. (2009). The Lion and the Mouse. New York, NY: Little Brown. ISBN 9780316013567

School Library Journal 09/01/2008 pg. 165 (EAN 9780823419227, Library Binding)