Starred Review ALA Booklist

Starred Review Change the offensive names and the racist illustrations, and Bannerman's beloved story Little Black Sambo is restored to children for their delight. By one of those mysterious publishing coincidences, two great new versions of the story have come out in the same season, nearly 100 years after Bannerman first published her story in 1899. Lester and Pickney's large, beautiful picture book, Sam and the Tigers , keeps to the essentials of Bannerman's book, but words and pictures play with the original fantasy and embellish it in a warm African American storytelling voice.Marcellino's book is small and square (though not as small as Bannerman's original). The names are now Indian, and the setting is India (where Bannerman lived for 30 years). Otherwise, the text is the same, and it is a joy to read aloud those simple sentences with their satisfying repetition and rhythm (Oh! Please Mr. Tiger, don't eat me up . . . ). The clear, funny pictures show Babaji as a happy, loving child, and there's wonderful comedy in his confrontations with the big bully tigers, who then fall prey to their own silliness and vanity. Best of all is the final reversal, when the tigers chase one another so fast they turn into butter, and Babaji's mother makes the butter into pancakes, and he gets to eat them up.For those who go back to look at the 1899 book, it's a shock to see the ugly stereotypes. Let's hope these two new versions will drive the old one out of print. (Reviewed Sept. 1, 1996)

Starred Review for Publishers Weekly (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

Like Julius Lester and Jerry Pinkney (see Sam and the Tigers, below; and see Children's Books, July 29), Marcellino (Puss in Boots) takes on the task of recasting Helen Bannerman's 1899 classic, Little Black Sambo; also like Lester and Pinkney, he obtains winning results. He sets his version in India, changing the names of the characters from their racist originals to reflect local terms of affection but otherwise retaining Bannerman's simple, straightforward text. Papaji is a mustachioed, turbaned artisan; Mamaji, draped in a sari, sews the finery that draws the tigers' attention; Little Babaji strolls through the jungle--past palm fronds and temples--in an outfit worthy of a rajah. He loses his fine clothing piece by piece to a succession of tigers, but triumphs when the egotistical creatures chase one another around a tree until they all melt into butter. The tigers are by turns haughty, intimidating, and immensely silly in their exaggerated preening and posturing: for example, as they escalate their dispute over which tiger is the grandest, one pounces elaborately upon another, who has put up his paws, boxing-style. A stylish and comparatively spare interpretation--Marcellino several times uses a single image set off by white space, suggesting rather than showing the country's lushness--that still captures the childlike whimsy and charm of this long-lived tale. Ages 2-up. (Sept.)

Horn Book

Save for changing the names, Marcellino has illustrated Bannerman's text intact. The book is pleasingly small and almost square; the quietly droll illustrations place the action in India circa Bannerman's tenure there. This cleaned-up version of an old favorite will hold children with its classic rhythms, and there's nothing to make adults nervous. Or is there? (For further discussion of this title and the history of the Sambo controversy, see the September/October 1996 'Horn Book'.)

Kirkus Reviews

A children's classic gets the Michael Jackson treatment: lightened skin, fancy new dress, a bit of (editorial) cosmetic surgery and voila! Fine old wine in a new bottle. The text remains the same (less the American edition's preface), except that Black Sambo, Black Mumbo, and Black Jumbo are given what are billed as authentic Indian names''—Little Babaji, Mamaji, and Papaji—that are still appropriately ingenuous, but considerably less loaded. Marcellino (The Pelican Chorus, 1995, etc.) provides illustrations far more polished than the originals, ably capturing both the story's true setting and its glorious silliness. Little Babaji, looking like a glossy teak marionette, faces a succession of huge, luxuriously supple tigers whose eventual meltdown provides him, Papaji, and sari-clad Mamaji with a supper of pancakes—andLittle Babaji ate a Hundred and Sixty-Nine, because he was so hungry.'' Offered in a square format about an inch higher than the diminutive original, this remake combines a star illustrator and a story with proven appeal: You can't beat it. (Picture book. 4-7)"

Publishers Weekly (Tue Dec 03 00:00:00 CST 2024)

In a starred review, <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">PW said, "Marcellino takes on the task of recasting Bannerman's 1899 <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Little Black Sambo and obtains winning results. He sets his version in India and his stylish and comparatively spare interpretation captures the childlike whimsy and charm of this long-lived tale." Ages 3-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(June)

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 2--Bannerman's famous (perhaps infamous) book, The Story of Little Black Sambo, first appeared in 1899. In the original, a "little black boy" loses articles of his clothing to a succession of tigers. Argue as they do, the animals cannot decide who among them is the grandest. In their anger they whirl around a tree so fast that they melt into a pool of butter ("or `ghi' as it is called in India") while the boy recovers his clothing. "Black Jumbo," the boy's father, takes the butter home to Sambo's mother, "Black Mumbo." A note on this newly illustrated version states that, "For this edition of Bannerman's story, the little boy, his mother, and his father have been given authentic Indian names": Babaji, Mamaji, and Papaji. Marcellino's illustrations clearly set the story in India in a time long past. Though the artist's watercolors are well crafted, often amusing, and appropriate to the tone of the text, they and the "new" names appear to only replace one cliche with another. The bug-eyed characters, with their diminutive names, serve only to create a new stereotype. Humor is conveyed in the body language of the tigers, and they are magnificently done. Many remember Bannerman's tale fondly, though the story itself has a condescending, childish tone. Those who want a relic of their childhood are likely to be disappointed in this edition. Julius Lester's retelling, Sam and the Tigers, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney (Dial, 1996), retains the appealing aspects of the story but adds a fresh humor and less-cliched perspective through the names and the warm illustrations.--Maria B. Salvadore, District of Columbia Public Library