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Written by a British woman living in India at the turn of the century to entertain her two daughters, Little Black Sambo quickly became a funny classic of children's literature (modern fantasy). It is a tale of a jolly, resourceful little boy who gives away his red coat and his blue trousers and his purple shoes and his green umbrella to the different tigers who want to eat him up. Then the tigers fight over which is the grandest tiger, and chase each other around a tree, not letting go of each others' tails until they turn into butter. Little Black Sambo rescues his clothing and his father takes the melted butter home so his mother can make pancakes. They all sit down to supper and Little Black Sambo eats the most pancakes because he is so very hungry. This book has the language of story-telling which appeals to children. It is also good to let children play-act out the story. The pictures illustrate the story with humor as well. The simple words, and the highly effective repetition, capture the attention of both reader and listener, frightening them just enough to excite them. One of the most successful books ever written for the two-to-five age group, each picture exactly illustrates a moment in the story. The text and pictures present non-white people as living in entirely primitive conditions, and as having no culture. Sambo communicates with animals, which seemed to imply that he is inferior, and close to the animal world. The illustrations are crudely drawn, grinning stereotypes with clownish eyes and huge mouths. The situation "Oh! Please Mr. Tiger, don't eat me up and I'll give you my beautiful little Red Coat" is the picture of the always docile black. Sambo's parents are called Black Jumbo and Black Mumbo, and these names are rather apt to harbor racial and religious intolerance (as in the phrase "mumbo-jumbo"). At the time she was writing the story, black had no unpleasant significance. Indians were quite prepared to talk about black; the derogatory idea crept in later. Bannerman did not have any sort of color prejudice: black was used to make an interesting story for children and a black child was a more romantic figure for a white child to read about. It was inevitable that a woman of Bannerman's background and period would think and write as she did. Her outlook is certainly racist in the context of today, and would have no place in a multi-racial society. This book has been repeatedly challenged as an acceptance of white superiority, and is still banned from libraries, showing an awareness of the deep roots of racism in our history, culture, and language.
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