Folktales

Hamilton, Virginia. 1985. The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN: 0394969251. $18.99 (hardback).

Many of the stories in this collection were told among slaves as they dreamt of freedom or remembered their lives in Africa. Hamilton focuses on several themes—animal tales, magical and supernatural tales, and tales of freedom—and following each story is a note explaining its history and meaning. Black-and-white illustrations by Caldecott Medallists Leo and Diane Dillon round out this important book.

Hamilton, Virginia. 1995. Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales. Illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon. New York: Scholastic, Inc. ISBN: 0590473700. $19.95 (hardback).

In the tradition of Hamilton's The People Could Fly and In the Beginning, a dramatic new collection of 25 compelling tales from the female African American storytelling tradition. Each story focuses on the role of women -- both real and fantastic -- and their particular strengths, joys and sorrows.

Hamilton, Virginia. 1997. A Ring of Tricksters. Illustrated by Barry Moser. New York: Scholastic, Inc. ISBN: 0590473743. $19.95 (hardback).

Twelve trickster tales that show the migration of African culture to America via the West Indies.

Hamilton, Virginia. 1996. When Birds Could Talk and Bats Could Sing. Illustrated by Barry Moser. New York: Scholastic, Inc. ISBN: 0590473727. $17.95 (hardback).

A collection of stories, featuring sparrows, jays, buzzards, and bats, based on those African American tales originally written down by Martha Young on her father's plantation in Alabama after the Civil War.

For The People Could Fly

I would have my fourth grade students focus on the slave tales of freedom, the last section in this book. After class discussion on history and background, and after sharing each story aloud, I would have the students illustrate their images from The People Could Fly selection. I thought this particular story presents an opportunity for students to visually portray the view of slavery versus the view of freedom. Encourage them to illustrate how they think the slaves saw the world from the field in contrast to how they saw the world from the sky.
by Dorothy Duffy

	For The People Could Fly and *Her Stories*
	While Hamilton's collections are more reader-friendly to younger audiences -- I think that older students could benefit from reading black folktales from other sources. There is one story in particular that is common to both Hurston and Hamilton. In Hamilton's it is entitled "Woman and Man Started Even". Both of the stories share key features, yet are told differently. Older students could compare and contrast the two versions of the same story. Which did they like better? Why did the change occur? etc.
	If you wanted to look at more than one story you could examine which types of stories are in each book, how many stories do the two have in common, do they share characters ? (John de Conquer, Brer Rabbit, etc.) How is dialect and/or dialogue used in each book? Which is easiest to understand? etc. by Rebecca Michelle Laney

For The People Could Fly and Her Stories

again, with older students, it would be interesting to compare contrast northern European or Asian folktales with Hamilton's versions here. most folktales and fairy tales come from a need to explain something and they all have common themes. I am thinking of something more involved than the fairy tale comparisons that elementary students do; something involving vocabulary, dialect, choice of characters and settings, and possibly historical relevance...
by Kris Luetkemeyer

For Her Stories

“Millie Evans” is a tale that struck me as something that could be used so easily in a classroom. Here is a tale, without bitterness, without bile, and without gore about being a child-slave. This is a tale that reveals how even kind masters are an abomination against humanity. When I was in fifth grade, my history teacher told us that Thomas Jefferson was a hero of early America and to prove this, she used his treatment of his slaves as proof: he was kind to his slaves and set many of them free. That was confusing for me as a child, because I equated the kindness that I saw in my family with the kindness that Jefferson showed his slaves. This tale reveals truly that ‘kindness’ and ‘slave owner’ are mutually exclusive.
This tale would be good in a classroom because it could be a springboard to a discussion about dehumanization without expecting the average 8 year old to wrap his mind around that word. To start, read the story to the class and ask the students to draw a picture of what they thought snack time looked like, based on what the story said. Talk about the words ‘trough’ and ‘Johnny Cakes’ and ‘buttermilk’. Then display the pictures and re-read that segment of the story. Talk with the students about how they feel about what they drew. Then create a Venn-Diagram with the students. Label one side ‘Families work Together’ and the other ‘Slaves work alone’ or something similar. The objective here is to distinguish between how people can work together and demonstrate respect for each and the situation that the slaves faced. In this manner, the students will hopefully walk away less confused about the issue than I!
If the students are older, this could lead to a discussion about modern day slave conditions around the world, both for adults and for children. Students could research companies around the world which rely on slave labor. As an extension, students could work with Amnesty International or other organizations to begin a dialogue about modern slavery and sweatshops, their first cousins.
by Kris Luetkemeyer

	For *When Birds Could Talk and Bats Could Sing*
	Select a tale from the book. Prepare to tell the tale for the class. Use props or other accessories in order to tell your tale.
	Select your favorite illustration from the book. Why is this illustration meaningful to you? What makes this a good illustration? How is this illustration an important part of the tale? by Ashley Stephenson

	For *The People Could Fly*
	Students are to role-play a character from the folktale The People Could Fly.
	Have students represent a certain character from the folktale and act out one of the events from the story. In other words, act out that characters feelings of emotion from a particular event that happened. Some examples of related vocabulary for emotions and feelings: depressed, miserable, shocked, thrilled, delighted, and/or impressed. They may work in pairs for this project. by Pam Draper

	For *The People Could Fly*
	I would use the tale of the devil’s daughter or the riddle tale in a classroom. For ‘John and the Devil’s Daughter’ I would ask younger children to come up with a different way that John and the Daughter could escape. First, as a class, talk about the different things that the pair could have used from nature, such as hiding in caves or covering their tracks; from our reality, such as cars, or an airplane; from the future, possibly a tele-porter or an cloaking device; and from the world of magic to escape. Write these on chart paper and display them in the front of the classroom. Then, divide the students up and have them decide what the devil would have done to try to find the pair. The devil’s responses have to be reasonable (i.e., if the pair hide in a cave, the devil can’t use x-ray vision to find them, he also has to use something from nature.) As a larger project, I would ask the students to read one other ‘John’ tale from a different culture (Hamilton suggests many at the end of the tale presented here) and compare and contrast the two. This could be as simple as a Venn diagram, or as complicated as a report, depending on the age of the student.
	For the story of the ‘Riddle Tale of Freedom’, the older students should research and find records of the riddles that were popularized just before and just after the Civil War. To present them to the class, ask them to illustrate them without the answers being obvious. The challenge is for the other students to solve the riddle. Then ask the students to create their own riddles based on their lives. These riddles will of course be ripe with meaning for the students and part of their presentation of these riddles should include an explanation of why they chose which image and words. by Kris Luetkemeyer

	For *A Ring of Tricksters*
	In a classroom, these would be fabulous stories to read out loud a few at a time. I would ask the students to discuss what they were hearing and make predictions about what the repetitive characters (Anansi, Bruh Rabby) might do next. Then, after the book was finished and the students were familiar with the story framework, I would ask them to write stories about animals that live near them (or the class rabbit if they are urban, pet-less students) Depending on the students, they could act out their stories, or print and illustrate them.
	Older students could research the countries and regions where the stories originated and perhaps do a mini-report on an interesting tidbit of information. Another possibility is to ask the students to research the movements of Africans to America, around the Americas, and back to Africa. Hamilton hints of this passage in her book, but older students could really explore the depth of the migrations. by Kris Luetkemeyer

	For *all*
	Something to investigate could be the differences in themes, motifs, and ideas between folktales with African roots and those with African-American roots. While it may seem simple, there are cultural differences between the two, and examining the differences would enable students to gain an understanding of the similarities and differences of the two cultures.
	Especially with the animal tales, these would easily translate into puppet theater productions that could be performed by middle and high school students during storytimes or special afternoon presentations.