Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock

Title: Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock

Author: Eric A. Kimmel

Genre: Traditional Literature

Summary: Anansi the Spider was walking through the forest when a moss-covered rock caught his eye. “Isn’t this a strange moss-covered rock!” Anansi said, and down he went. He woke up an hour later and his head was spinning. He didn’t know what happened. He repeated his story, saying that he was walking in the forest and something caught his eye. “Isn’t this a strange moss-covered rock!” he said again and down he went. He woke up this time and realized what was going on-it was a magical rock, so anytime someone said “moss-covered rock,” something would happen to them. Anansi went walking through the forest and came to a Lion’s house. Lion was sitting on his porch with a pile of yams. Anansi told Lion that he was going for a walk in the forest and asked him to join. Lion accepted. Anansi took Lion a certain place in the forest and asked him what he saw. “Isn’t this a strange moss-covered rock!,” Lion said, and down he went. Anansi went back to Lion’s house and made off with the yams. Lion woke up an hour later and Anansi was nowhere to be found, so Lion went back to his house to see that all of him yams were gone; he was very sad, but Anansi was happy and he couldn’t wait to trick someone else. Again, Anansi went walking, walking, walking and stopped at Elephant’s house. Elephant was sitting on his porch with a pile of bananas. Again, Anansi played his trick. This time, he got all of Elephant’s bananas. When Elephant awoke and went back home, he was sad when he saw that his bananas were completely gone. Anansi played the same trick on Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, Giraffe, Zebra and every other animal in the forest. All this time, from behind the leaves, Little Bush Deer was watching Anansi play this trick on the other animals. She deiced that it was time for Anansi to learn a lesson. She climbed a coconut tree, and brought coconuts to her house. Anansi asked her to go on a walk in the forest and she went. Anansi and Little Bush Deer went on a walk, but Little Bush Deer refused to say “moss covered rock” for Anansi, so he began to get frustrated. Little Bush Deer pretended that she didn’t know what to say, and finally, Anansi just said it and down he went. Little Bush Deer went and got all of the other animals and went to Anansi’s house and took back everything that he had stolen from them. When Anansi woke up an hour later, he went home to see nothing that he had taken from the other animals and Little Bush Deer was nowhere in sight. Anansi still hasn’t learned his lesson because he is still playing tricks to this very day.

Characters: Anansi, moss-covered rock, Lion, Elephant, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, Giraffe, Zebra, Little Bush Deer

Plot: Anansi tried steeling food from the other animals in the forest by playing the same trick on all of them

Theme: N/A

Setting: houses of the animals, forest

Opinion: I enjoyed reading this book, because I think that even though the lesson didn’t work on Anansi, it might work on children. I think that children would find this funny and engaging.