Cendrillon :
A Caribbean
Cinderella
by Daniel San Souci
Illustrator: J. Brian Pinkney
Charles Centrillon Perrault, Robert D. San Souci,
Published: 1998
Reading level: Ages 4-8

Book Description: You may think you already know this story about a beautiful servant girl, a cruel stepmother, a magnificent ball, and a lost slipper. But you've never heard it for true.

Now hear the tale from someone who was there: a poor, strong willed washerwoman from the island of Martinique who, using her sharp wits and a magic wand left her by her mother, decides to give her dear goddaughter, Cendrillon, the gift of love.

A Caldecott Honor author/illustrator team brings us a unique Cinderalla story, with a remarkable fairy godmother to tell the tale. Adapted from a traditional Creole story, this fresh retelling captures all the age-old romance and magic of Cinderalla, melding it with the vivid beauty of the Caribbean and the musical language of the islands.

Customer Review: Kudos! - This is a wonderfully rich retelling of the traditional French Cinderella story, set in the Caribbean. As a school librarian I've shared this title with students to compare it to the traditional version. They love it! The pronunciation guide in the back is most helpful. The story is unique because it is from the point of view of the spunky godmother. Pinkney's scratchboard illustrations are perfect! - Reviewer: A reader from Brownstown,PA, February 22, 2000

Sing Me
a Story!:
Song and Dance
Stories from the Caribbean
Author: Grace Hallworth
Illustrator: John Clementson
Published: 2002

Synopsis: In the Caribbean stories are not just for telling and listening: they are for singing and dancing. So here, courtesy of the Caribbean, are five mischievous stories to get the children up and on their feet. The traditional tales are woven around human characters, talking animals and mythical creatures. Grace Hallworth's energetic retellings are accompanied by one-line music, dance rhythm choreography by a well-known dance teacher and by John Clementson's brilliantly colourful collage, together with a glossary and a note from the author.

Play Mas'!
A Carnival
ABC
Author: Dirk Mclean
Illustrator: Ras Stone
Published: 2000
Reading level: Ages 4-8

Book Description: Join us to jump up on J’ouvert morning! You are invited to Play Mas’ and enjoy a Caribbean Carnival. Whether you are taking part in Trinidad or Toronto, Barbados or Brooklyn, Carnival is a joyous chance to sing, dance, and celebrate life.

Carnival is rooted in the French tradition of the Masquerade (Mas’), transformed by African, East Indian, and Spanish culture. Originally, Carnival took place just before the season of Lent. Now, Carnivals are held in places around the world at different times of the year.

In this book, each vibrant painting presents a different aspect of Carnival. Detailed information about the celebrations makes it a useful resource as well as an opportunity to share in the fun. There is even a hidden letter to find in each painting.

Grannie and
the Jumbie:
A Caribbean Tale
by Margaret M. Hurst
Published: 2001
Reading level: Ages 4-8

Emanuel hear about ghost, spirit, and Jumbie once in a while. Emanuel, he say one day, "Why I should be scare dis way?"

Emanuel is tired of being lectured by his grandmother. "Jumbie dis an' Jumbie dat, an't'row de salt over you left shoulder." He doesn't believe Grannie's old-fashioned superstitions -- until one day evil Jumbie pays him a visit!

This brilliantly illustrated story captures the vibrancy of Caribbean folklore. Each piece of fabric is from the author's native St. Thomas and is infused with the island's cultural traditions.

Fruits:
A Caribbean
Counting Poem
Author: Valerie Bloom,
Illustrator: David Axtell
Published: 1997
Reading level: Baby-Preschool

Children who have been tempted to take the last sweet treat on a plate will certainly identify with the little girl who narrates this story when she escapes with the last pawpaw and later hides two guavas so "When night come and it get dark / Me an' dem will have a talk."

The fresh fruits that surround and tempt the child may be unfamiliar to American readers. Many are typical of the Caribbean, and they are referred to here by their Jamaican names--naseberry, sweetsop, pawpaw. Most will intrigue readers, even the guinep, about which the narrator explains: "It don't mek no sense to pick it / One guinep can't feed a cricket."

Axtell's rich, vibrant illustrations capture Jamaican life as decidedly as the orally based text that utilizes island patois to capture local speech patterns. Children will relish the little girl's sense of humor and her ability to outwit adults, and even the grand, grand stomach she has at the end.

An unusual counting book with an engaging protagonist and an appealing look at rural Jamaican life. Karen Morgan (Ages 3-7 - Booklist)

Caribbean
Colors of
the Rainbow
Authors: Dee Skylan, Rachel Woodruff
Published: 2002

Book Description: Caribbean Colors of the Rainbow is a unique audio collection of original Caribbean-inspired songs that children will enjoy listening to over and over again.

Dee Skylan and Rachel Woodruff artfully combine many styles of music -- traditional folk music, bluegrass, country, reggae, blues and calypso -- to create a memorable impression of island culture, through song.

The Caribbean Colors of the Rainbow songbook is an added bonus that can be used to enrich a child's learning experiences. It's full of opportunities to enhance reading, language, listening, and speech skills. And, if you play an instrument, the chords and keys are provided for sing-along fun

Down in
the Subway
Author: Miriam Cohen,
Illustrator: Melanie Hope Greenberg
Published: 1998)
Reading level: Ages 4-8

Book Description: It's magic when the sun shines underground...
The storyteller's voice sets the scene vividly: "It was hot in that subway train. Ohhh, yes!" Young Oscar is swinging round and round a pole--and peeking at the one cool rider in the car. She's the Island Lady, and with a smile at Oscar she's just pulled a blue Island breeze out of her shopping bag. Then the green Caribbean Sea itself, a picnic lunch of ackee rice, salt fish, callaloo, soursop soup, guava, pineapple, and coconut tarts. And, look, here's the Calypso Man. And, listen, there's a whole hot train full of people singing along and dancing to a sudden steel band. The pictures offer up a feast of color and movement. They seem to dance themselves, just as Oscar and his family do at the Island Lady's urging.

My Little
Island
by Frane Lessac
Published: 1987
Reading level: Ages 4-8

"Portrays life on a Caribbean island in a way that is both eye catching and entertaining." (School Library Journal)

Book Description: Fiery colors and hundreds of details evoke the sun-drenched beauty, the sweet smells, and the joyful sounds of a jewel-like little Caribbean island that a young boy rediscovers while on a visit with his best friend.

Customer Review: Beautifully Ilustated, highly recommended! - This book is absolutely beautiful. The illustrations are incredibly colorful and true to life in the islands. The volcano that has erupted and buried Montserrat is mentioned and show in the book, and though Monteserrat is now buried under ash and not at all like the paintings in the book, your child does not have to know the details.

My three year old loves this story and pictures. He is familiar with Carnival and many of the "island" fruits and vegetables mentioned in the book. If you live outside the Caribbean, you could go to an island marketplace with your child and actually find and eat these delicacies.

Overall, this is a wonderful story about a boy and his best friend who travel to Montserrat for an all-too-short vacation. Again, for you statesiders who have not been to the Caribbean with your kids, you will have to explain some of the pictures; however, this is what imaginations are for. Enjoy the book. Highly recommended. - Reviewer: charlie4 from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, June 18, 2000

La Cucaracha
Martina:
A Caribbean Folktale
by Daniel Moreton
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Published: 1997

Book Description: La Cucaracha Martina doesn't like life in the big city. The loud city sounds hurt her tiny ears and keep her awake at night. Determined to find the source of the one beautiful noise she has heard only a few times, Martina takes to the town and creates a big stir. Splendidly shaped and colorful creatures come, one by one, to catch a glimpse of this ravishing roach. Soon, marriage proposals fly and love is in the air. Who will win the heart of this extraordinary cucarachita?

Customer Review: La Cucaracha Martina is a wonderfully funny book for kids! - This book was wonderful! Although written for younger children older children and adults will enjoy it too. The illustrations are crisp, bright and whimsical. The story of a beautiful cockroach is based on a Caribbean Folktale. It is a fun read and a great book to share with others. The book has lots of secrets in the language. Look for the meaning to the many spanish signs and symbols located throughout the book. I shared this with my college classmates, my adolescent children and younger children as well. They all enjoyed the story and were equally intrigued by the illustrations. --Reviewer: A reader, October 2, 1998

A Caribbean
Counting Book
Author: Faustin Charles
Illustrator: Roberto Arenson (Illustrator)
Published: 1996
Reading level: Kindergarten-Grade 2

Book Description: A collection of Caribbean counting rhymes, traditionally chanted in children's games and songs.

Charles traveled throughout the Caribbean to compile these traditional and contemporary counting rhymes, jump-rope chants, and games. In Barbados, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Cuba, the Virgin Islands, Martinique, Trinidad, and Tobago, he recorded the playful rhythms, from adults and children, at home and in school yards, capturing the lilting dialects he heard all around him. ( School Library Journal)

Caribbean
Dream
by Rachel Isadora
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Published: 1998

Book Description: Where does sea meet sky? Where does sound meet color? Where does song meet soul? They meet where children run, splash, sing, and live, on an island in the West Indies.

Rachel Isadora has written an inventive text, just right for the very young, featuring the activities children love. Winsome watercolors depict the connections that exist in the world around us, and take us to the places that lie deep in the hearts of all children, no matter where they live.

Mama,
Across the Sea
by Alex Godard, George Wen
Published: 2000
Reading level: Ages 4-8

Tthe book is beautifully designed. Moreover, its large format offers an expansive canvas for Godard's richly colored single-and double-page pictures of Cecile's breeze-kissed island world (Booklist )

Oversized pages depict the lush Caribbean setting in which Cecile lives with her grandparents. Her mother works on the mainland, and her father disappeared at sea. Readers follow the child as she tries to keep busy-watching her grandfather repair fishing nets, reading mail to her grandmother and helping her paper the walls of the house with catalog pages, and making a picture with shells-but the her loneliness is palpable.

Cecile listens with sadness to a storyteller recount the tale of two brothers out fishing, one of whom followed a siren's call and was never seen again. While her mother cannot leave her new job, she does arrange, in the end, for Cecile to visit her.

This story of intergenerational love amid the realities of life is sure to strike a chord with children who miss a loved one for any reason, but those with working parents will immediately relate to the feelings of the winsome heroine.

The full-page illustrations have a soft focus and are rendered in a tropical palette. Wavy gray lines, simulating waves, create a bottom border on pages of text; small details decorate the top margins. Visually, the story can be appreciated by a group; emotionally, it is more satisfying in an intimate setting. A quiet treasure. (Kindergarten-Grade 3-School Library Journal)

Under
the Moon &
over the Sea:
A Collection of Caribbean Poems
Editors: John Agard, Grace Nichols
Illustrators: Christopher Corr (), Cathie Felstead, Jane Ray, Sara Fanelli
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Published: 2003

A Collection Of Caribbean Poems is an eclectic anthology for readers of all ages, brightly enhanced with full-color, stylized artwork in celebration of Caribbean life and culture.

This is a collection of more than 50 poems guaranteed to chase away any winter blahs. Each of the book's five sections begins with a piece of Caribbean folklore and is illustrated by a different contemporary artist. Within each section, vibrant words and evocative artwork bring the sights, sounds, and smells of the islands to life...

Agard and Nichols, who collaborated on No Hickory No Dickory No Dock: Caribbean Nursery Rhymes (Candlewick, 1995; o.p.), have once again created an exuberant tribute to one of the world's enchanted places. (Grade 3 Up-School Library Journa)

The Twins
and the Bird
of Darkness:
A Hero Tale from the Caribbean
Author: Robert D. San Souci
Illustrator: Terry Widener
Published: 1st edition 2002
Reading level: Baby-Preschool

Book Description: When a benevolent king and his daughter, Princess Marie, find their peaceful kingdom threatened by an enormous, evil, seven-headed bird, the brave princess offers herself as the bird's hostage in order to prevent the entire kingdom from being thrust into eternal darkness.

As soon as Soliday, a kindhearted, hardworking, and generous youth hears about the princess's sacrifice, he vows to kill the Bird of Darkness and save Marie. His identical twin brother -- the jealous, lazy, and dishonest Salacotta -- accompanies Soliday on the dangerous journey, but doesn't lift a finger in order to rescue the princess or slay the monstrous bird. And the second Salacotta sees his chance to claim that he was the one who freed the princess, he does just that.

Will Soliday be able to convince everyone that he is indeed who he says? Will his brother admit his treachery? Will Soliday ever be able to trust his twin again?

This timeless and resonant folktale about the forces of good and evil and the redemptive power of brotherly love is the perfect story for the ages.