|
The Magic Orange Tree: and Other Haitian Folktales | 
 enlarge | Author: Diane Wolkstein
Publisher: Schocken
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy Used: $5.18
You Save: $9.82 (65%)
New (23) Used (19) Collectible (1) from $5.18
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 391128
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Young Adult
Pages: 224
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.6
ISBN: 0805210776
Dewey Decimal Number: 398.2097294
EAN: 9780805210774
ASIN: 0805210776
Publication Date: January 21, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Paperback has minor wear. Pages are clean and unmarked. 13
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
A collection of folktales gathered by the author in Haiti with comments on Haitian folklore.
|
| Customer Reviews:
An unusual, charming and authentic book of Haitian folktales August 3, 1999
27 out of 28 found this review helpful
I lived in a remote village in Haiti for five years and found this book while home in the USA for a visit. I found its stories unusual and charming -- and authentic! When I returned to Haiti I had a wonderful time with my Haitian friends as I related the stories I had read in this book and they would finish telling them with me and share how their mothers and fathers had shared these same stories with them.
Quirky and Fun July 2, 2000
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
If you're looking for stories with pat, solid endings, this is not the book for you. But, if you're looking for something that reflects the eccentricity and style of Haiti, then this is it. The stories are magical and you can almost see the people telling them for themselves! Kric?
Learning Another Land October 18, 2002
Kevin L. Nenstiel (Kearney, Nebraska)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
By the author's own admission, these stories weren't necessarily the best-told she encountered while researching folk tales in Haiti. The flat page lacks the beauty of the oral tale, and some of these stories may have been a little weak in the telling; but on the page they reveal a great deal about Haiti, and are a fascinating read besides.Folk tales reveal a great deal about a culture-what it values, how members of the society relate, what their beliefs are. These tales do exactly that. While they aren't as clear-cut, with a defined beginning, middle, and end, as American readers have become accustomed to, they do give away a great detail about Haiti. Life is unfinished; hardship is to be embraced and studied; the spirit world is right here at hand, not a million miles away above the clouds. Even on their own, they stand as a monument to the creative act and the power of the human intellect. These stories will infect your head like a virus, spreading and replicating, until you have to pass them on. Read them casually, and you will be enlightened. Study them seriously, and you may be transformed.
A Storytelling Tour of Haiti! February 15, 2006
Margaret R. Macdonald (Seattle, WA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The amazing thing about this collection is Wolkstein's introductions...she tells you about the teller and the setting in which each tale was collected...it is like taking a storytelling tour of Haiti. I require all of my storytelling students to read these intros to understand the variety of the storytelling tradition. Plus the stories are really great for telling. AND she includes the music! EVERY school and public library should own this!
simply first-class! March 17, 2008
Bruce D. Wilner (Alexandria, VA USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Truth be told, I wasn't expecting a whole lot of sophistication from the uneducated peasant culture of overwhelmingly rural Haiti. Imagine my surprise, then, to discover that I was being treated to a marvelously tightly integrated ethnographic study-cum-anecdote chrestomathy. In addition to some uniquely Haitian elements, there are, of course, the to-be-expected plethora of archetypal folkloric motifs as catalogued by Aarne and Thomson. The stories were generally brief and worked quite well, and Wolkstein's detailed notes about the physical setting and orator of each tale make the reader feel as if he's actually taking part in a rural Haitian storytelling session under the full moon in the sweltering sugar cane fields. Bravo, Dr. Wolkstein!
|
|
|
|
| |
