From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 1996 13:48:00 -0600

I would like to second Alexandra Kontes' recommendation for Barbara Bader's fine article on the history of Little Black Sambo that appears in the current
(September/October) issue of "Horn Book."

I recently spoke to a group of librarians about using reviews in book selection and I used the printed reviews of "Sam and the Tigers" as a teaching tool. All of the reviews I have read to date take a very academic approach to the book
(understandable, considering its history), mixed with personal nostalgia, and seem to assume that the audience is white. (e.g. "We all remember LBS as a childhood favorite, now here's an edition we can use without feeling guilty.") I would very much like to read some criticism of "Sam and the Tigers" from an Africa-American perspective.

I suspect that there is a lot more going on in the book than meets the eye. For example, all reviewers note the repeated use of the name "Sam" -- everyone in Sam-Sam-Sa-Mara is named Sam -but no one ventures a guess as to why Julius Lester made this choice. A couple of reviewers point out an apparent inconsistency: if in Sam-Sam-Sa-Mara animals and people live together in perfect harmony, why do The Tigers turn on Sam and threaten to eat him up? Both of these details represent conscious choices on the part of the book's creators -- I believe that they enrich the story by providing an underlying layer of meaning aimed at adults who were hurt by the insult in the original book when they read it as children. For example, the playful use of the name Sam may be meant to take the sting out of the character's original name and the bit with The Tigers threatening Sam takes on the air of a cautionary tale: that one must judge people (or animals) by their actions rather than their appearance.

Kathleen Horning, CCBC School of Education University of Wisconsin-Madison
Received on Tue 22 Oct 1996 02:48:00 PM CDT