WHEN BIRDS COULD TALK AND BATS COULD SING

Joel Chandler Harris wasn't the only collector of African-American trickster tales; here are eight fables gathered (and some, perhaps, written) by Martha Young, his contemporary. Most of the lessons are pointed: Boasting that she can touch the sky, Brown Wren flies too high and has to be saved by larger birds; the "Still and Ugly Bat" was once beautiful but became so proud that she threw away her feathers and songs; Bruh Buzzard doesn't wait quite long enough for Fair Maid the horse to die. and gets a lick in the head that leaves him bald ever after. In several stories, birds help human or animal friends; when young Alcee Lingo gets the chills, Blue Jay and Swallow steal fire from old Firekeeper, and Cardinal gets his brilliant color by wiping blood from a hunter's near-miss off Bruh Deer. Hamilton (Her Stories, 1995, etc.) recasts the thick dialect of the originals into fluent, musical prose that demands to be read aloud, and to which Moser's exact, energetic paintings of brightly colored birds—all sporting bonnets or top hats and very human expressions—make perfect accompaniment. First published in local newspapers and not available in book form since the 1970s, these wry, comic, tender tales should at last find the wide audience they deserve. (Folklore. 7-10)