The Story of Little Black Sambo

Name: The Story of Little Black Sambo
Brand: Author's Republic
Availability: InStock
Rating: 3.2 (6 reviews)
Author: Helen Bannerman
ISBN: 9781662125331

Author: Helen Bannerman

Narrator: Karen Challemberg

Unabridged: 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Author's Republic

Published: 07/01/2020

Categories: Nonfiction, Literary Collections

Synopsis

Sambo is a South Indian boy who lives with his father and mother, named Black Jumbo and Black Mumbo, respectively. While out walking, Sambo encounters four hungry tigers, and surrenders his colorful new clothes, shoes, and umbrella so they will not eat him. The tigers are vain and each thinks he is better dressed than the others. They chase each other around a tree until they are reduced to a pool of ghee (clarified butter). Sambo then recovers his clothes and collects the ghee, which his mother uses to make pancakes. Despite controversy concerning the racism of illustrations of other contemporary editions, we reprint the original American Edition by The Stokes Company. The illustrations therein are more of the type done to illustrate contemporary children’s books, and which do not reflect the patent racism of other editions of Little Black Sambo; editions that clearly pandered to racist sentiment at the time.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bradley on November 03, 2017

Rather more interesting than I thought it would be! And no, I don't know why anyone would think this was racist. The kid pulled a golden apple trick on the four tigers and let them fight amongst themselves, finally getting his clothes back. I don't know about any of you, but that's a clever move. Bri......more

Goodreads review by Lisa on September 24, 2008

I just saw a Goodreads friend rate & review this, and it sparked my memory. I absolutely loved this story as a small child, and to me it was about a boy who created a wonderful outcome for himself and who was the hero of the story. He’s intelligent, capable, creative, and very clever, and those panc......more

Goodreads review by Zoë on March 01, 2015

Book 17/100 for 2015 So we had to read this book and the updated version of it for my Children's Lit class and WOW it's super duper racist! Its history is pretty interesting, though and our discussion was eye-opening.......more

Goodreads review by Bob on May 25, 2012

Read the Simon & Schuster (1948) version back when I was a kid. No one thought it was racist, but that's only because it isn't. I bought a copy for my collection several years ago. Any book that's banned is worth having.......more

Goodreads review by Beatrice on December 12, 2012

As a child with no awareness of racism, I loved Little Black Sambo. My sister and brother and I would act the story out, especially the part where the tigers ran around the tree until they melted into a puddle of butter. I never recognized the discrepancy between the setting of the story (India) and......more