Kimmel, Eric A. 1994. Anansi and the Talking Melon. New York: Holiday House Inc.
ISBN: 0823411044
B. Plot Summary
Anansi and the Talking Melon offers a simple plot for readers to follow. A little black spider finds a crack in a melon and begins to eat the melon. He eats so much, he can’t get out and becomes bored while waiting to get thin again. While trapped in the melon, Anansi decides to trick various animals into thinking that the melon can talk. Anansi infuriates the king with his trickery and is finally out of the melon when the king throws the melon. Anansi finds a new fruit to munch on and use for his next talking trick.
C. Critical Analysis
Anansi is a mischievous spider
who finds pleasure in tricking an elephant and other animals such as a warthog,
a hippo, and finally the king gorilla. Anansi’s initial victim of his little prank
is a huge elephant. At the beginning of the
book, the setting is established rather quickly. The reader understands the setting is in a
melon patch however as the book continues, the setting becomes vague. It mentions they are traveling down a road,
but we don’t know where this road leads.
Throughout the story, time seems to pass rather quickly and the illustrations lead us to believe the story takes place within one day.
In this story, the theme is
hard to identify. The main character,
Anansi, is mischievous and even after playing his first trick on the elephant;
he chooses to play another trick on the elephant at the end of the story. Good does not triumph over evil and there is
not a moral or obvious happy ending.
This tale is simply about an ornery little spider.
The flow of the book is
segmented by the individual animals the elephant comes into contact with along
his way to see the king. Even though the storyline is easy to follow, the
syntax of the story is not on level with the audience this tale is
targeting. Lines like, “By and by they
ran into Warthog,” are hard for young readers to understand. Most of the book is written in a dialog
format and consists of conversations between each animal.
Illustrations in the story
are specific to what is going on in the text.
The illustrations aid character development. The reader understands the
personality or traits of the characters beyond their dialog with each
other. This is evident when the elephant
reaches the hippo. Only through the
illustrations is the reader led to believe the hippo is female.
Even though the liner notes
indicate Anansi is a West African/Caribbean folklore character, this is not
evident within the text or illustrations of the story. Although the images appear to be true
representations of the environment in a West African region, it does not pinpoint
this for the reader in the story.
The Anansi stories are known
to be trickster tales, which revolve around a central character, Anansi, and
his ability to fool other characters in the story. The other characters tend to be larger,
stronger characters like that of the elephant, hippo, warthog and gorilla. Since the characters of the story are animals, it allows the
story to be universal and appeal to any culture.
D. Review Excerpt
The Kirkus Review offers the following review of the book:
"For the third time, Kimmel (Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock; Anansi
Goes Fishing) lightly treads the path of the trickster spider. Anansi,
who has bored his way into one of Elephant's melons, persuades Elephant
that the melon can talk. As a result, Elephant makes a fool of himself
in front of the king, and -- in a bang-up ending -- discovers that
""talking melons are nothing but trouble."" These last words come from a
banana (where Anansi is once again eating). Stevens's funny animals are
delightfully expressive, while Anansi's spider-level perspectives
provide generous close-ups of melons, a hippo, a warthog, et al.
Good-spirited tomfoolery, with storytelling that reels along with the
ease of a seasoned prankster."
E. Awards
International Reading Association Children's Choice
F. Connections
This book would be wonderful to use with comparing common main characters across books. It would also be beneficial to add this book into an author study.
Author's website: http://ericakimmel.com/
Illustrator's website: http://www.janetstevens.com/
Lesson Plans: www.liveoakmedia.com offers lesson plans on this book
www.teachingbooks.net also offers connections and lesson to this book.
G. Other Books By Kimmel
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| ISBN: 0823417638 |
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| ISBN: 0823407985 |
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| ISBN: 1430108436 |
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