rookdigoo's review against another edition
3.0
I wanted to give this book 5 stars for the GORGEOUS art and fun beats, but I don't really care for trickster stories where the con man wins, but it's a personal preference and doesn't reflect on the quality of the book itself, and this book is gorgeous nonetheless.
carolsnotebook's review against another edition
4.0
This book is just pure fun. The pictures are gorgeous, simply drawn but full of vibrant colors. Malese tricks his neighbors into giving him everything from shoes to rum for a cake. The end up throwing him in jail for a month, but of course Malese is pretty sly. By the end, not only is he out of jail, but his neighbors are fixing up his house for him—for free of course.
At first I thought it's kind of a shame that Malese never learns not to trick his friends and neighbors, but this is a traditional trickster story and a trickster is always a trickster. On top of that, I feel like Malese' friends and neighbors do love him, in spite of how he treats them. I like to think of them as more amused than angry in the end.
My daughter,9, loves this story too. It does makes her laugh and she gets a kick out of Malese' antics. And we can read it in about 10 minutes, which makes it nice for bedtime reading.
At first I thought it's kind of a shame that Malese never learns not to trick his friends and neighbors, but this is a traditional trickster story and a trickster is always a trickster. On top of that, I feel like Malese' friends and neighbors do love him, in spite of how he treats them. I like to think of them as more amused than angry in the end.
My daughter,9, loves this story too. It does makes her laugh and she gets a kick out of Malese' antics. And we can read it in about 10 minutes, which makes it nice for bedtime reading.
kesterbird's review against another edition
5.0
Tricksters are, well, jerks, and while i enjoyed this, i might hesitate to read it to my nephew unless i was planning to leave soon afterwords
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