Title: McDermott, Gerald. Anansi the spider: a tale from the Ashanti. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, 1986.
Summary: This story tells the tale of Anansi the spider and his 6 sons: See Trouble, Road Builder, River Drinker, Game Skinner, Stone Thrower and Cushion. Anansi's sons each have different skills that help their father Anansi triumph over various misadventures along his journey. There's more trouble when Anansi decides to give the moon to his "best son", and can't decide which one deserves it the most. He calls on the God of All Things, Nyame, to help him choose. Nyame comes up with a Solomonic solution to Anansi's dilemma.
Cultural origins and how identified: The author identifies the tale as coming from the Ashanti people in Ghana in the title.
Audience: This story is for children from 5-8 (according to Publisher's Weekly review). I think this is accurate and would be appropriate for school and/or library settings. In this story, Anansi is depicted as a bit of a fool, but he's an innocent fool, not a mean one, so kids can relate to him.
Notes on adaptation for telling:
One could use different voices for the narrator, Anansi and his sons. The tone should be lighthearted. Using puppets (gloves make great spiders) would also be a fun way to enhance the storytelling.
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