Twenty-one lively tales center Mbe, the tortoise trickster of Igbo storytelling, in a new title in African Folktales for the Young at Heart. Mbe is clever, boastful, endlessly resourceful--and rarely as wise as he thinks he is. Across twenty-one tales, the tortoise cheats his way through a marathon, bargains with a mermaid, plots against a lion king, steals from a well, tangles with a python, vulture, eagle, crocodile, sheep and snail, and repeatedly discovers that every trick leaves a consequence. Drawing on the Igbo figure of Mbe and the moral logic of African folktales, Chiamaka Nwaobia combines humor, proverbs, supernatural encounters and animal characters to introduce young readers to a living storytelling tradition. Adventures of Mbe the Tortoise is designed for independent reading, family sharing and classroom discussion about honesty, responsibility, patience, friendship and wisdom.
African Folktales for the Young at Heart : Adventures of Mbe the Tortoise