Diane Dillon

A retelling of a traditional West African tale that reveals how the mosquito developed its annoying habit. A mosquito annoyed the iguana, who frightened the python, who scared the rabbit ... and now the whole jungle is in an uproar because the sun won't rise. The animals discuss the situation and decide to punish the mosquito. Even today, whenever we hear a mosquito buzz, we smack it hard!

A pair of mandarin ducks, separated by a cruel lord who wishes to possess the drake for his colorful beauty, reward a compassionate couple who risk their lives to reunite the ducks.

Michael's love for his great-great-aunt who lives with them leads him to intercede with his mother, who wants to toss out all her old things.

Retold Afro-American folktales of animals, fantasy, the supernatural, and desire for freedom, born of the sorrow of the slaves, but passed on in hope.

Presents an introduction to jazz along with brief profiles of such famous jazz musicians as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Max Roach, and Ella Fitzgerald.

Presents that selection from Ecclesiastes which relates that everything in life has its own time and season.

In eighteenth-century West Africa, a boy raised by his blacksmith father and the Mother Elements--Wind, Fire, Water, and Earth--is captured and taken to America as a slave.

In this retelling of a folktale, a group of slaves, unable to bear their sadness and starvation any longer, calls upon the African magic that allows them to fly away.

A lonely little boy who is afraid of the dark is introduced to a whole new world by his new friend, a little girl.