RAKOTO AND THE DRONGO BIRD

The book is based on a folk legend, but as the subtitle indicates (A Story of Madagascar in the Days of the Slave Trade) the emphasis is as instructive as educational. Details about tribal life on the island supplement the classic but always intriguing storyline of a little boy who warned his people that slavers were coming, and of his favorite bird, the drongo bird, which led the enemy away from the group by its imitation of a baby's cry. Unfortunately the author has not introduced any humor into the situation nor has she developed the sense of terror attached to the slave traders, so that the text seems dry. The wood block prints, alternately two and four colored, are appropriately primitive, but are too densely crowded.