First Palm Trees

by James Berry, Greg Couch (Illustrator)

Anancy Spiderman, the West Indian trickster, attempts to persuade the Sun-Spirit, Water-Spirit, Earth-Spirit, and Air-Spirit to create the world's first palm trees in order to collect a vast reward from the king.

40 pages, Library Binding

First published October 1, 1997

About the author

James Berry, OBE, Hon FRSL (1924-2017) was a black Jamaican poet and writer who settled in England in the 1940s. His poetry is notable for using a mixture of standard English and Jamaican Patois.

Reviews

[Awjtf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting!

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't like this one quite as much as other Anancy/Anansi stories I've read, but it is definitely a nice addition to the canon. It was perhaps a bit long-winded for the result it achieved, and it didn't have quite the playful irony that I expect, partly because it didn't seem like Anansi knew what he was doing during the story. But it did stay true to the Anansi character. The artwork was lush, and I loved the clever ways that the artist depicted a human with the appearance/impression of a spider.

[Ed McKeogh · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the surface, it might seem odd to see a children's picture book on an adult's book list--and rated with 5 stars, no less! But here's the thing: The artwork by Greg Couch is stunning, and that's why I love this book. The richness of color and clever design make Mr. Couch's art breathtaking. If you love good art, you'll love this book.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

We enjoy reading books about Anancy the trickster and we really like the stories by Eric Kimmel. We were excited to discover an Anancy story we hadn't read before at our local library. It's an entertaining tale, but not one of our favorites.