What do you think?
Rate this book
Anansi and the Tug o' War
This trickster tale from Africa, Anansi proves to Elephant and Killer Whale that in a battle of wits, brains definitely will outdo brawn and brute strength. In this whimsical tale we see how Anansi the clever spider uses his resourcefulness and courage to teach the larger animals to respect smaller creatures.
- GenresHistorical
32 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 16, 2012
12 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 9, 2021
This story's about a young spider called Anansi teasing elephant and killer whale by challenging them to a tug o'war but ties them to the same vine and when they were tired out he went to them and asked who was the strongest. My favorite character is Anansi because he's always full of energy and always has an exciting story.
Yes I would recommend this story
Yes I would recommend this story
March 23, 2013
This book was used for a comprehension activity for the year four class I was in during my placement. It was read by the teacher and then a very illustrative video was also shown to them the next day.
The main character, Anansi the Spider, is up to no good again. He is still playing tricks on his unsuspecting associates. On this occasion, poor Anansi is trying to sleep when he wakes to find an Elephant on top of him. The Elephant berates Anansi by exclaiming he was unaware Anansi was underneath him as he is a “pipsqueak” and could not see him. To prove to the Elephant that Anansi is not a pipsqueak, he challenges Elephant to tug of war. However, Anansi does not intend to partake in this game with the Elephant and as usual, begins to devise a cunning plan.
Anansi goes to the sea and then challenges the Killer Whale to a game of tug of war by exclaiming Anansi is the strongest creature, of which the Killer Whale laughs and accepts the challenge. However, little do both creatures know that Anansi has tied the rope to each and they are actually competing against each other. Both creatures pull and pull but both give up due to sheer tiredness. Anansi then goes to each creature and declares himself the winner and proves that he is indeed the strongest creature.
The activity involved each child imagining they were either the Elephant or the Killer Whale and had to write a descriptive account of how they felt towards Anansi before and after losing to him in the Tug of War competition. This was also an excellent exercise to include more “powerful adjectives and adverbs” within their writing, something which the year fours in the school were heavily focusing on. Words that were elicited from the children were very creative such as “cunning” and “trickster”, something which the teacher wanted instead of “that no good Anansi”, which many were using within their writing with a previous story from the Anansi series. This activity was also an ideal time to increase their use of connectives and the teacher did not want any child to use the word “because” and “said."
Although the book was created for children who are in lower years, the moral of the story was ideal for a comprehension exercise. It is a very humorous book but also portrays to children a sense of real life and how people we come across will try to trick and lie to us. It also shows the children a sense of injustice and how they may cope with this experience.
The illustrations are superb and this definitely aided to assist the children on the “lower” ability tables and the EAL children and the one child with SEN. All were engaged throughout this story and this was reflected in their writing.
The main character, Anansi the Spider, is up to no good again. He is still playing tricks on his unsuspecting associates. On this occasion, poor Anansi is trying to sleep when he wakes to find an Elephant on top of him. The Elephant berates Anansi by exclaiming he was unaware Anansi was underneath him as he is a “pipsqueak” and could not see him. To prove to the Elephant that Anansi is not a pipsqueak, he challenges Elephant to tug of war. However, Anansi does not intend to partake in this game with the Elephant and as usual, begins to devise a cunning plan.
Anansi goes to the sea and then challenges the Killer Whale to a game of tug of war by exclaiming Anansi is the strongest creature, of which the Killer Whale laughs and accepts the challenge. However, little do both creatures know that Anansi has tied the rope to each and they are actually competing against each other. Both creatures pull and pull but both give up due to sheer tiredness. Anansi then goes to each creature and declares himself the winner and proves that he is indeed the strongest creature.
The activity involved each child imagining they were either the Elephant or the Killer Whale and had to write a descriptive account of how they felt towards Anansi before and after losing to him in the Tug of War competition. This was also an excellent exercise to include more “powerful adjectives and adverbs” within their writing, something which the year fours in the school were heavily focusing on. Words that were elicited from the children were very creative such as “cunning” and “trickster”, something which the teacher wanted instead of “that no good Anansi”, which many were using within their writing with a previous story from the Anansi series. This activity was also an ideal time to increase their use of connectives and the teacher did not want any child to use the word “because” and “said."
Although the book was created for children who are in lower years, the moral of the story was ideal for a comprehension exercise. It is a very humorous book but also portrays to children a sense of real life and how people we come across will try to trick and lie to us. It also shows the children a sense of injustice and how they may cope with this experience.
The illustrations are superb and this definitely aided to assist the children on the “lower” ability tables and the EAL children and the one child with SEN. All were engaged throughout this story and this was reflected in their writing.
June 4, 2019
Entertaining story about Anansi the spider outsmarting two large and powerful animals. Anansi uses clever tricks in the story to become victorious. Good use of dialogue and action throughout to tell the story. An entertaining story for young readers to explore independently or during a read-aloud. Teachers could use the text in read-alouds to focus on conflict/resolution, chronology, and character development.
April 25, 2020
Anansi is a spider and one day an elephant didn't see him and lay on him. Anansi challenged the elephant to a tug-of-war, but while the elephant napped, Anansi tied a rope to him and ran to engage a killer whale in the same challenge. When they pulled against the rope, they thought they were in competition with the spider and couldn't believe how strong he was.
Cute story.
Cute story.
October 24, 2017
Cleverness pays off in a tough spot!
March 28, 2020
Can a spider be stronger than an elephant or a whale?
Read
September 20, 2020This book
August 7, 2020
Short (5 minutes or so) but charming. Listened to it from stories.audible.com.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews