Cautionary Fables & Fairytales: Africa Edition

Date

2014

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Kel McDonald

Abstract

This paperbound book is parallel to the 2016 Cautionary Fables & Fairytales: Asia Edition: Old Tales of Magic and Woe. This copy adds the subtitle "Old Tales of Magic and Woe" only on its back cover, not on either the title-page or the front cover. I again find the stories on the border of fable. Like that book, this is a "graphic novel" including, as the beginning T of C shows, 15 stories rendered in black-and-white. I sampled four of them and found good stories, none of them classic fables. "The Jackal and the Wolf" (67) starts telling a story and then translates it into doomed action. "Frog and Snake Never Play Together" (69) is a sad story of two young people warned against playing with those whom their parents deem to be enemies. It asks what would happen if they had not been so warned. "The Girl Who Married a Lion" (161) puts a theory to test. "Is sister's husband a lion? Let us put their two sons in a cage and see if a lion attacks them." The lion attacks, and so everyone can apparently be sure that their father is not a lion. Hmmmm…. "Concerning the Hawk and the Owl" (169) may be closest to a classic fable. The hawk has been awarded the right to choose his favorite prey with impunity. He learns that it is better to attack chickens than owls. The former scream but do nothing; the latter are silent but attack back in the dark of night. While the Asia book was published by Amazon's own company for "comiXology," I can find no claim by whoever published this book. The Ebay listing gives Kel McDonald as the publisher. Did Amazon see a good thing and buy him out?

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