posted on 09 Aug 2017

Tales from The Caribbean by Trish Cooke

Traditional tales from all corners of the world are usually a rich mix of magic, morals and fantasy coloured with plenty of death and retribution, which is why I suppose they have always been popular with young and old alike. This book is the third in a series of stories published by Puffin aimed at 8-12 year olds and certainly doesn’t disappoint with any of the required ingredients. Trish Cooke is an accomplished storyteller whose books like the much loved classic ‘So Much’ are renowned for their dramatic prose.  I read this collection of stories whilst travelling on a long train journey and it kept me suitably enthralled – sometimes causing me to read extracts aloud to my husband! And indeed that is how they would be best enjoyed because they are designed to draw in a listener as if in a spell with repetition and powerful rhythm.

The author explains that her family originally came from the island of Dominica and that her parents had passed on many stories as part of her childhood:

‘The precious stories they were sharing with me were a link to their past, my heritage, some of which were told to them by family members or raconteurs’.

I daresay that there would have been a wealth of such stories to use from Dominica alone, but this collection also includes a variety from several other Caribbean islands. It is quite difficult to select my favourites from such an array but here goes:

Two Dinners (based on an Ashanti story brought across to the Caribbean)

This is one of the many Anansi the spider man stories, a popular character in Jamaican folkore who is an example of a fictional trickster that is always plotting, ducking and diving. An interesting section at the back of the book explains the universal appeal of such characters:

‘They use their brains and not their strength … They don’t obey the rules…And they always survive. Even the most dreadful punishments or accidents don’t squash them’. 

In this story, the very greedy Anansi is invited to two parties at opposite ends of the island at exactly the same time and decides on an elaborate plot to send his sons, Kuma and Kwek so that he can eat his fill at both of them. He is attached to both sons by a rope and waits at the centre of the island expecting them to pull as each meal is served -all does not go as planned and he goes home hungry.  I have chosen this one partly because of the detailed descriptions of food – which this author is very good at in every story:

‘ As he pulled the rope Kuma decided that he might as well fill his belly with some of Ma Dog’s fried chicken with rice and peas and plantain, followed by coconut cake and custard for afters… Kwek too filled his belly with Brer Goat’s delicious callaloo, lobster and pepper soup with dumplings and finished with some chocolate ice cream’.

 

The Three Tasks (based on a French Caribbean folk tale)

This is one of the strangest tales about Avaline, a beautiful young woman who wants to marry Francois and escape her wicked stepfather after her mother has died. As often happens in such stories, he sets three seemingly impossible tasks for her suitor to complete before he gives his permission, Fortunately, Avaline’s mother has given her daughter a magic twig to help her in difficult situations and so she gives it to him to help him complete the tasks. All goes pretty well until the last one because in order to climb a slippery ice tree to collect two golden eggs, he is instructed by the twig to kill Avaline, extract all of the bones from her body and then fashion a ladder of bones. Which of course he does very efficiently and without any apparent qualms! Once he has got the eggs and put her bones back she comes back to life ( phew), but he realises that he has left one of her little finger bones at the top of the tree and so has to start all over again – this time with the clock ticking. I can just hear the gasps from the audience of children as this ghoulish story unfolds.

Papa Bwa and Monkey Trouble (based on a folk tale from Trinidad)

This is a tale about Anna, a woman renowned for baking delicious cakes who decides to take a short cut through the dense forest to take her wares to market. Well – we all know that going off the beaten track is not a very wise idea in the land of folk tales and so the reader is well prepared for what follows.  She meets the terrifying Papa Bwa and runs for her life, dropping her basket of coconut, lemon, ginger and chocolate cakes shouting ‘Trouble is with me’! Without spoiling the story I need to tell you that a monkey finds and eats up all the cake and what happens next is the reason why ever since monkeys live high up in the tree tops.  

As with the other books in the series, there is a section at the end to give further context for the stories that includes fascinating information about the original inhabitants of the Caribbean and how the history of slavery influenced the ethnic makeup of the different islands over many decades. Perhaps more than any other region of the world, these islands hold a wealth of stories that originate from West Africa, Europe and America they continue to evolve and change as they are passed around.  Trish Cooke adds her own dashes of colour and I am sure that they will be very much enjoyed by a new generation of young readers.

 Karen Argent

August 2017