Reviews

Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales by Virginia Hamilton

amandaquotidianbooks's review

5.0

An excellent selection of stories and the most beautiful illustrations I’ve seen from the Dillons. It includes among others: two mermaid stories, the origins of cats, spooky stories, fairytales and true stories from real women.

thistle_and_verse's review

5.0

Each story gets an illustration, and the artwork was beautiful. Most of the sections are folktales, and the last section involves interviews with African American women from different time periods. I appreciated the historical context and thoughtfulness Hamilton put into presenting these stories.

brucefarrar's review

4.0

This 1995 collection of stories told by African American women was drawn from a variety of sources that Hamilton compiled and rewrote in late twentieth century American English and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon. The result is a beautifully illustrated large format volume. Kudos are due to designer Kathleen Westray as well as the author and illustrators. It’s also a not a collection of the usual tales. Credit is also given on the verso of the title page to researcher Leanne Seabright. “Her keen eye for detail in the investigation of source records helped greatly in the uncovering of inspired and unusual material.”

There are humorous tales, trickster tales, por quoi tales, tales of heroic women, frightening tales of being ridden by witches, and even a couple of mermaids. For me the most powerful ones were the memoirs that came at the end of the collection, two by former slaves, one by the author’s Sunday School teacher, and the most dramatic by the author herself as she recounts how her mother talked her through a cyclone when it hit their home.