Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock (Anansi the Trickster)

Anansi, the spider, finds a magical moss covered rock in the forest. He figures out that if he says "isn't that a strange moss covered rock" he passes out for an hour. He decides to play this trick on several of his friends including the lion. When they fall asleep he takes their food. However his

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friend the Bush Deer watches Anansi trick all his friends and decides he will not fall for it. Instead the Bush Deer gets Anansi to fall for it himself. I loved this book because it provides many good teaching points about friendship. Students can discuss the importance of kindness and honesty.

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This book talks about one "friend" who tricks his other friends into going to a rock in order to get their goods since he is too lazy to go get the items himself. This would be a good book to talk about friendship or to introduce and talk about folklore in other cultures.

I love trickster tales, and Eric Kimmel does a great job of retelling stories of Anansi. I also love Anansi that the Talking Melon. The illustrations are bright and dynamic, and the rhythm of the text is funny and almost musical.

Anansi the Spider finds a strange moss-covered rock in the forest. He tricks all the other animals with the stick and steals all their fruit. Little Bush Deer decides to teach Anansi a lesson by tricking him with his own trick and gets all the fruit back for the animals.

I loved the illustrations in this book. The characters are so cute and warm. I think this is a great book for children because it is visually appealing and interesting enough, yet there is still a lesson learned.

Anansi the spider is out walking one day when he comes across a moss-covered rock. Anansi discovers the rock has special powers and uses them to get food that he wants from his animal friends. In the end he is tricked by the deer and all the food he stole is returned. I loved this book and can’t

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wait to read it to my kinders tomorrow. I think it would be a good book to discuss what is a trickster? How would they use the rocks magic powers.

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Anansi the spider uses his trickery again in this funny story about the lazy spider. Anansi tricks all of his friends to look at the magic rock, the rock ends up knocking everyone out. So the tricky spider steals everyone's food. But one resident isn't so gullible. Anansi ends up being the one who

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is tricked. This is a very fun story, with a lot of laughs for the kids.

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This is another trickster tale about Anansi the spider; in this one he tricks his friends into looking at a moss-covered rock and saying magic words which then causes them to pass out for an hour. When they pass out, Anansi steals their food - Anansi is a jerk, heh heh.

This would be a great read

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aloud - lots of opportunity for different voices, sound effects, etc. It's not too long and the illustrations are very visually engaging. Also, Anansi gets his comeuppance and that's always nice!

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I love this story of Anansi, the tricky spider, who finds a "strange moss covered rock" in the forest. If anyone says the magic words, they will be knocked out for about an hour. Anansi uses the rock to knock out his animal friends and steal their food. But another animal knows the trick and turns

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the tables on Anansi. The story is funny and just the right length for Kindergartners. My students always get a kick out of this one!

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I really like the stories about Anansi. This folktale representation really gets children interested in folktales, especially with the illustrations and the reading level. It also teaches them a lesson about tricking people.

This African folklore is about a spider who finds a moss-covered rock in the forest. The spider, Anansi, decides to use the rock to trick the other animals in the forest to get the other animals' food. However, Anansi did not fool the Little Bush Deer. Instead, the Little Bush Deer fooled Anansi.

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In the end, the animals retrieved their food and Anansi was left with nothing. One thing that I like about folktales and fables are that they have a moral or teach a lesson. These books are great books to start conversations and discussions with students. In my classroom, I would discuss what it means to "trick" other people and what might be the consequenses. Another theme that I would discuss is sharing and taking what is only yours, not someone else's things. The illustrations were colorful and fitting for the book.

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Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock, retold by Eric A. Kimmel is an African folklore tale of a spider who is a trickster. Anansi discovers a magical moss-covered rock in the forest and uses it to trick the Lion, Elephant, Giraffe, and Zebra. Quickly Anansi is able to steal a multitude of food from

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these animals without hardly any effort in his part. He is an opportunist who finds clever ways of taking other’s resources and gaining a fortune for himself. Anansi is discovered by a timid little bush deer who in the end tricks Anansi out of all his ill-gained profit and returns the food to its proper owner. The story is clever as the trickster gets tricked, and justice is served in the land. The timid bush deer becomes the hero of the story as all the other animals are indebted to him. The moral of the story is that, “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool them all.” This picture book is beautifully illustrated and entertaining for all audiences.
Ages 3 and up

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Very nice story with a good life lesson. I had never read about Anansi before, but I will make sure I read more of his stories. I fell in love with the cultural representation in the illustrations, in particular the animals. The scenery and exotic fruit add a special touch to this story.

I would use this book with 1-3rd graders. I would use this during a theme on jungle animals. I like this book because it has predictable elements and in the end Anansi is the one who gets tricked!

Local author, intersting story, that promotes understanding, kindness, and knowledge. I would use this story in the classroom to promote social skills for my students. There is trickery involved in the story, but that is what makes the story interesting.

Anansi the Spider uses a strange moss-covered rock in the forest to trick all the other animals, until Little Bush Deer decides he needs to learn a lesson.

Anansi the Spider uses a strange moss-covered rock in the forest to trick all the other animals, until little Bush Deer decides he needs to learn a lesson.

So, the crux of this book is in the absurd premise that SOMEWHERE in the forest there is a strange-looking moss covered rock that knocks you unconscious for an hour if, upon seeing it, you go "Isn't this a strange, moss-covered rock?"

Of course, if you can accept the existence of talking spiders and

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various African animals that live in houses and sit on chairs, you can accept this too. And you should, because the story of how Anansi got outwitted, hoisted on his own petard? Well! That's worth dropping in a dead faint for an hour over!

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I really like this book because the characters are well developed. The reader gets to know Anansi the spider and follows him as he tricks all of the other animals in the jungle. Anansi plays the same trick on different animals, so it provides students the opportunity to make predictions and

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inferences. The illustrations also help the reader to understand the story and give clues as to what is going to happen next. For example, throughout the story the illustrator includes the deer hiding in the bushes. At the end of the story the reader learns that the deer has been spying on Anansi and helps the animals get their food back. I also like that the main idea teaches the readers a lesson. The message of the story is that it is wrong to deceive and steal from other people which is a great lesson for students of any age to learn.

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I liked this book because although Anansi should've learned his lesson, he didn't, but that happens in life. I liked the characters in this book because they displayed trust, but trust was always broken. For example, Anansi, the spider would always invite the lion, elephant, rhinoceros, etc. for a

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walk over to the special rock. He would say, "Isn't this a strange moss-covered rock?" and like that, the animal would be knocked out cold and Anansi would steal it's food. The animals would trust Anansi and he would break their trust by stealing their food. I also liked the plot, it was well organized and the same thing kept happening until the last animal caught on to Anansi's tricks and tricked him instead. The plot ended with bush deer tricking Anansi and getting all the animals all their food back, but unfortantely Anansi did not learn his lesson. The big idea in this book was that not everyone learns their lesson.

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Summary: Anansi is a sneaky, lazy spider who discovers a magical, moss-covered rock. When he says the magic words, “KPOM!” he falls asleep! Anansi decides to use the magic rock to his advantage and tricks all the other animals into saying the magic words. While they are sleeping, Anansi steals

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all their fruit! However, Little Dear’s been watching, and she decides to teach Anansi a lesson. This book is a funny story about trickery, and getting what one deserves. The repetitious lines and sentence structures make it a great book for beginning readers.
This book can be use to learn the craft of writing with a pattern. The story follows the same pattern as Anansi tricks all the animals. This is one way to write a story, and kids can practice writing stories with patterns like Kimmel does in this book.

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Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock, by Eric Kimmel, was great I loved the story. The story is about a spider who tricks others in order to take their food, but eventually someone catches on and tricks him. The big picture to me was several things, don't be greedy, work hard for what you earn, and be

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honest. I feel all three of these are brought up in the story. One aspect of the story I truly enjoyed was the characters. I enjoyed the characters, because the animals traits were turned into the human like actions. For example the spider was sneaky and devious, where the deer was shy and timid. These were great additions to the story, because the animals activated schemas in my head and I already had an idea of how the story would go, from the first page. Another aspect of the story I enjoyed was the plot. Having a good plot is very important, this story was a very well planned and explained story, followed by a quick resolution, showing that good always triumphs. The plot had several powerful statements, and showed a great story. The last element of the story I enjoyed was the illustrations. I can honestly say I laughed when I saw the lion hit his head on the rock, I can also say I felt sad when the lion saw all his food was gone. The images were realistic and showed the emotions that the writer was expressing. Overall I really enjoyed this book.

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I read this book for the first time with kindergarten students and they absolutely loved it. The main character is a spider that happens to find magic and he uses it for his own benefit against other animals. But he does not win in the end and we learn why it is not helpful to be dishonest. This

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story is based on a traditional tale and it would be a great way to discuss culture, life science, and art.

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In this Anansi tale she tries to trick the animals out of their food, but a wise deer is watching and finds a way to outwit her. I like the art in this book, it looks like colored pencil. The background got just as much attention as the characters in these drawings. As I said before, I really like

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these stories.

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