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A review by sassmistress
The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales by Virginia Hamilton, Diane Dillon, Leo Dillon
dark
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
4.5
I loved this book! But I'm very glad I preread it. It's worth having the book just for the freedom stories and the Bruh Rabbit stories, but there are several content considerations you'll want to be aware of before handing it over to kids, mostly regarding violence and spiritual content. There are also a few scary stories that my young children are not ready for.
In general, though, this book has beautifully written stories that (at least to me) feel really authentic. I admit my opinion may be colored by my nostalgia for the Bruh/Br'er Rabbit stories I grew up on. Most of the stories are written in dialect, but it's much easier to understand and read aloud than the ones I was read as a child (Harris' version, I think). The introduction says they're best read aloud, and I 100% agree. I thought I did a pretty good job, but I imagine the audiobook version would be amazing.
Each story is only a few pages, so they're great for picking up a quick read here and there. That makes it even easier to just stick to a few favorites if you'd rather.
In general, though, this book has beautifully written stories that (at least to me) feel really authentic. I admit my opinion may be colored by my nostalgia for the Bruh/Br'er Rabbit stories I grew up on. Most of the stories are written in dialect, but it's much easier to understand and read aloud than the ones I was read as a child (Harris' version, I think). The introduction says they're best read aloud, and I 100% agree. I thought I did a pretty good job, but I imagine the audiobook version would be amazing.
Each story is only a few pages, so they're great for picking up a quick read here and there. That makes it even easier to just stick to a few favorites if you'd rather.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Blood, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
There are 24 stories grouped into 4 categories, so I'll mention content considerations by group.
~~~~
"...Bruh Rabbit... And Other Animal Tales" are mostly what you'd expect - comic violence, mischief, and outwitting predators or thieves. Some are "why the animal has these marks" stories. There are magic words spoken to activate magical objects in stories 3 and 5. (Surprisingly, I recognize several themes from European folk tales!)
(🔥) In story 6, Bruh Rabbit starts a brush fire. The imagery is VERY vivid (smells and sounds), and Bruh Gator, along with his wife and children, have to run from it and are burned and blistered. "It take them a whole day to get hold theyselves. N'young alligators cryin so." Could be very upsetting if you have a fire-related trauma.
(Violence and drowning) Story 7 took me by surprise. See the picture that has an illustration of a wolf riding a walrus. The wolf "tears out her milk" (the illustration has a milk bottle around her neck), comes back with a knife to kill her, and she drowns and kills him while his wife is watching. "Wolf came up two days ago. He was full of little fish. And sand. And water... All his children cried for him. All his people did too."
~~~~
"... Tales of the Real, Extravagant, and Fanciful" - Standard tall tale and fairy tale elements like walking a hundred miles with a step, turning very small or into animals, a king's (?) life being dependent on an egg in a hog's belly, a poor suitor being given a whistle that will call his rabbits to him, giant garden vegetables, etc.
(Spiritual elements)
- "The Devil" is a comically impotent bad guy. Brief appearance in The Two Johns when he appears in a barrel so the owners pay the protagonist to take it away.
- Bad guy stops at a church to "get a pardon for my sins and for what I'm about to do"
- The "old woman in the woods" trope is common in fairy tales, but in these stories they are mostly referred to as a "witch". In "... The Hairy Man", Mama is a "conjure" (conjurer/witch doctor - "knew how to lay tricks, put together charms, or take the tricks away" etc). She enchants some rope and gives advice for tricking The Hairy Man. This includes telling him he's "goin to pray", which the son pretends to do.
(Violence)
- The "Girl of the Moon Tower" says her father won't let her marry, so the suitor kills him.
- In "The Two Johns", the bad one kills the other's horse, and when he's tricked into thinking it turned into a financial windfall, killed his own. Then did the same with their grandmothers. He puts the other man in a sack to throw him into the sea, but he escapes and tricks someone else into getting in the sack. The bad one is then tricked into getting himself thrown into the sea in a sack.
(Scary)
- "Wiley, His Mama, and the Hairy Man" has a scary monster out to get the protagonist, and illustrations. Included one example pic. Probably on par with other horror stories intended for children.
~~~~
"... And Other Tales of the Supernatural"
(Spiritual elements) "John and the Devil's Daughter" - John is "huntin the Devil. He expects to get some work with him. But there is no wagon ride to there. You have to find the witch lady." He pays her in meat and gets a ride from her giant eagle. The Devil gives him impossible tasks, and the Devil's daughter takes a fancy to him and helps him do the tasks, then they escape together to get married and live happily ever after.
(Scary) "The Peculiar Such Thing" - scary campfire tale. A man cuts off the tail of something that "crept through the cracks of the cabin logs" and eats it. The something comes after him at night, wanting its tail back. In the end, it attacks the man, "made him ribbons". Typical ghost story ending like: "they say... when the moon is going down.... you can hear X calling..."
(Scary) "Little Eight John" is contrary and doesn't listen to his Mama. She tells him not to do a series of superstitious things that will bring bad luck on the family, and he does them and laughs when bad things happen to the family. The last one she warned him would bring "Old Raw Bloody Bones", who does "come after bad Little Eight John" and turns him "into a little dark spot like a grease spot on the kitchen table". "What happens to all little chil'ren who never mind."
(Spiritual elements, alcohol) "Jack and the Devil" - Jack is wicked to his family and is a drunkard. The Devil comes for him, he tricks him (by offering him alcohol and trapping him in a "change purse with a cross for its clasp) and barters for another year. He plans to "repent and get my faith in the church" at the last minute. He has a drinking spree and misses his chance, the Devil comes for him, and he tricks him again (trapping him behind a cross shape), bargaining for the Devil to leave him alone forever. He "never thought a minute about repentin or being good or gettin religion". When he dies, Heaven denies him entry, and the Devil won't let him into Hell. The Devil takes pity on him and gives him a fiery coal to light the way, but he gets lost "in the dark" anyway. "Some say you can see his little light a-bobbin this-away and that-away when the night is coldest and the chill is deepest." (will-o'-the-wisp light)
(Scary, spiritual elements) "Better Wait Till Martin Comes" has a man in an abandoned mansion at night who "didn't worry much about haunts. He knew himself to be a good man, and he knew his prayers." A series of spooky cats come in, unrealistically large, and sit in the fireplace fire. He's "saying his prayers" faster each time and eventually runs out scared.
~~~~
"... Slave Tales of Freedom"
These are SO GOOD. "Carrying the Running-Aways" is a true first-person story about a man who rowed runaways across the Ohio River to the home of a Presbyterian minister along the Underground Railroad. It's only about 3 pages, but it's a gripping family story.
3 more are about enslaved people winning their freedom. One with a bet about making someone laugh, one who found a singing turtle ("if it's true, I'll give you your freedom"), one with a riddle game. A 4th didn't become free, but convinced the "planter" (enslaver) that he could "prophesy" (make predictions). In the story, he lucks into keeping the deception going.
The title story, The People Could Fly, is the last one in the book. This is a really moving story that imagines there were some Africans who could fly, who lost their wings and forgot how to fly when they were enslaved.
(Content below: slaveowner violence, child harm, racist language)
This story depicts forced labor in a field - several people are hit with a whip, including a baby on a woman's back when it cried and the mother couldn't stop to soothe it. People bleed and collapse. The "Overseer" says, "get up, you black cow."
An old man figure says the "magic words" that allow the people to take to the skies. The ones "who could not fly" were left behind, because he "hadn't the time to teach them to fly. They must wait for a chance to run."
~~~~
"...Bruh Rabbit... And Other Animal Tales" are mostly what you'd expect - comic violence, mischief, and outwitting predators or thieves. Some are "why the animal has these marks" stories. There are magic words spoken to activate magical objects in stories 3 and 5. (Surprisingly, I recognize several themes from European folk tales!)
(🔥) In story 6, Bruh Rabbit starts a brush fire. The imagery is VERY vivid (smells and sounds), and Bruh Gator, along with his wife and children, have to run from it and are burned and blistered. "It take them a whole day to get hold theyselves. N'young alligators cryin so." Could be very upsetting if you have a fire-related trauma.
(Violence and drowning) Story 7 took me by surprise. See the picture that has an illustration of a wolf riding a walrus. The wolf "tears out her milk" (the illustration has a milk bottle around her neck), comes back with a knife to kill her, and she drowns and kills him while his wife is watching. "Wolf came up two days ago. He was full of little fish. And sand. And water... All his children cried for him. All his people did too."
~~~~
"... Tales of the Real, Extravagant, and Fanciful" - Standard tall tale and fairy tale elements like walking a hundred miles with a step, turning very small or into animals, a king's (?) life being dependent on an egg in a hog's belly, a poor suitor being given a whistle that will call his rabbits to him, giant garden vegetables, etc.
(Spiritual elements)
- "The Devil" is a comically impotent bad guy. Brief appearance in The Two Johns when he appears in a barrel so the owners pay the protagonist to take it away.
- Bad guy stops at a church to "get a pardon for my sins and for what I'm about to do"
- The "old woman in the woods" trope is common in fairy tales, but in these stories they are mostly referred to as a "witch". In "... The Hairy Man", Mama is a "conjure" (conjurer/witch doctor - "knew how to lay tricks, put together charms, or take the tricks away" etc). She enchants some rope and gives advice for tricking The Hairy Man. This includes telling him he's "goin to pray", which the son pretends to do.
(Violence)
- The "Girl of the Moon Tower" says her father won't let her marry, so the suitor kills him.
- In "The Two Johns", the bad one kills the other's horse, and when he's tricked into thinking it turned into a financial windfall, killed his own. Then did the same with their grandmothers. He puts the other man in a sack to throw him into the sea, but he escapes and tricks someone else into getting in the sack. The bad one is then tricked into getting himself thrown into the sea in a sack.
(Scary)
- "Wiley, His Mama, and the Hairy Man" has a scary monster out to get the protagonist, and illustrations. Included one example pic. Probably on par with other horror stories intended for children.
~~~~
"... And Other Tales of the Supernatural"
(Spiritual elements) "John and the Devil's Daughter" - John is "huntin the Devil. He expects to get some work with him. But there is no wagon ride to there. You have to find the witch lady." He pays her in meat and gets a ride from her giant eagle. The Devil gives him impossible tasks, and the Devil's daughter takes a fancy to him and helps him do the tasks, then they escape together to get married and live happily ever after.
(Scary) "The Peculiar Such Thing" - scary campfire tale. A man cuts off the tail of something that "crept through the cracks of the cabin logs" and eats it. The something comes after him at night, wanting its tail back. In the end, it attacks the man, "made him ribbons". Typical ghost story ending like: "they say... when the moon is going down.... you can hear X calling..."
(Scary) "Little Eight John" is contrary and doesn't listen to his Mama. She tells him not to do a series of superstitious things that will bring bad luck on the family, and he does them and laughs when bad things happen to the family. The last one she warned him would bring "Old Raw Bloody Bones", who does "come after bad Little Eight John" and turns him "into a little dark spot like a grease spot on the kitchen table". "What happens to all little chil'ren who never mind."
(Spiritual elements, alcohol) "Jack and the Devil" - Jack is wicked to his family and is a drunkard. The Devil comes for him, he tricks him (by offering him alcohol and trapping him in a "change purse with a cross for its clasp) and barters for another year. He plans to "repent and get my faith in the church" at the last minute. He has a drinking spree and misses his chance, the Devil comes for him, and he tricks him again (trapping him behind a cross shape), bargaining for the Devil to leave him alone forever. He "never thought a minute about repentin or being good or gettin religion". When he dies, Heaven denies him entry, and the Devil won't let him into Hell. The Devil takes pity on him and gives him a fiery coal to light the way, but he gets lost "in the dark" anyway. "Some say you can see his little light a-bobbin this-away and that-away when the night is coldest and the chill is deepest." (will-o'-the-wisp light)
(Scary, spiritual elements) "Better Wait Till Martin Comes" has a man in an abandoned mansion at night who "didn't worry much about haunts. He knew himself to be a good man, and he knew his prayers." A series of spooky cats come in, unrealistically large, and sit in the fireplace fire. He's "saying his prayers" faster each time and eventually runs out scared.
~~~~
"... Slave Tales of Freedom"
These are SO GOOD. "Carrying the Running-Aways" is a true first-person story about a man who rowed runaways across the Ohio River to the home of a Presbyterian minister along the Underground Railroad. It's only about 3 pages, but it's a gripping family story.
3 more are about enslaved people winning their freedom. One with a bet about making someone laugh, one who found a singing turtle ("if it's true, I'll give you your freedom"), one with a riddle game. A 4th didn't become free, but convinced the "planter" (enslaver) that he could "prophesy" (make predictions). In the story, he lucks into keeping the deception going.
The title story, The People Could Fly, is the last one in the book. This is a really moving story that imagines there were some Africans who could fly, who lost their wings and forgot how to fly when they were enslaved.
(Content below: slaveowner violence, child harm, racist language)
This story depicts forced labor in a field - several people are hit with a whip, including a baby on a woman's back when it cried and the mother couldn't stop to soothe it. People bleed and collapse. The "Overseer" says, "get up, you black cow."
An old man figure says the "magic words" that allow the people to take to the skies. The ones "who could not fly" were left behind, because he "hadn't the time to teach them to fly. They must wait for a chance to run."