BABA AND THE FLEA

by Glory Van Scott ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 25, 1972

From its ""once upon a time beginning"" to the happy-all-round conclusion, a clever if unmemorable anecdote about the efforts of the Witch Doctor Okufu to exorcise a mischievous flea who can be seen ""playing the Mbire [thumb piano] and hopping from one foot to the other, laughing and laughing"" inside Baba's ear. The Witch Doctor's most powerful spells, including the ritual of the Men in the Sacred Masks, prove fruitless, but he's able to save face when the flea, ""who always left the ears of little boys on their seventh birthdays,"" exits promptly the day after the ceremony. Brent Bailer endows the villagers with vapid, advertising art expressions and arranges them in dramatic tableaus which accentuate the African motifs but fail to make the most of the flea's sly humor.

Pub Date: Sept. 25, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Lippincott

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1972

Categories: CHILDREN'S