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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
This is a very clever story that will be appreciated by children and their parents too. Although it is not a Cameroonian story, the illustrations do a wonderful job at establishing the setting. Anyone who knows northern Cameroon will love the artwork. Besides being an entertaining story, it is nice way to give children a taste of this African country.
Format:Hardcover
I think this book has wonderful pictures. I met Trina Hyman and she told me the carpenter is her son-in-law. I thought that was neat.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
19 reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
magical tale with a sly sense of humor
20 Aug 2005
Format:Paperback
Lloyd Alexander is so incredibly talented; I was thrilled when I stumbled upon this children's book, previously unknown to me. The Fortune-tellers is a story of an old fraud whose prophesies for every customer are identical and very tongue-in-cheek. For example, the young man who comes to hear his fortune is told that he will become rich provided he can earn a lot of money, live a long life assuming it is not cut short by an early demise, and will marry his true love on the condition that he meets her, proposes to her, and she accepts him. The young carpenter is overjoyed by the good news of his future and runs back with more questions; however, he finds the room empty and when others come in, they assume that he is the fortune-teller transformed into a younger body. As the carpenter had been wishing for another trade, he takes the place of the old man, giving out the same advice which had been given to him. When this advice proves very popular he, in fact, achieves the wealth, happiness, and long life which had been "foretold" and often thinks fondly of the man who had seen the future so clearly. We learn of the fate of the real fortune-teller as well, who fell out of a window and spent the remainder of his life plagued by troubles. The humour in this story is great and will be enjoyed the most by older elementary or middle-school children who "get" the jokes.
I can't finish this review without commenting on the wonderful illustrations. The Caldecott medal-winning illustrator, Trina Schart Hyman, based them on her travels to Cameroon and they are truly exquisite. Rich and full of detail, each page is tapestry of colors and textures. This story is a perfect teaching tool and is a window for children onto the beauty of Africa and the bountiful humor and wisdom of its people. An entire unit could be developed from identifying and learning more about the foods, household items, clothing and fabrics, buildings, professions, landscape and animals shown in the amazing paintings found in this book. Even if you aren't able to develop such a unit, this book is an excellent choice to build interest and begin a discussion about West Africa.
I can't finish this review without commenting on the wonderful illustrations. The Caldecott medal-winning illustrator, Trina Schart Hyman, based them on her travels to Cameroon and they are truly exquisite. Rich and full of detail, each page is tapestry of colors and textures. This story is a perfect teaching tool and is a window for children onto the beauty of Africa and the bountiful humor and wisdom of its people. An entire unit could be developed from identifying and learning more about the foods, household items, clothing and fabrics, buildings, professions, landscape and animals shown in the amazing paintings found in this book. Even if you aren't able to develop such a unit, this book is an excellent choice to build interest and begin a discussion about West Africa.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Love it! Bought a copy, got it signed!
14 Jan 2000
Format:Paperback
Hardcover, that is. This book has a place of honor in my small collection of picture books (I'm usually more of a chapter book person). The thing that really amazes me about it is that it's so universal it could have been set anywhere. Trina did a lovely job setting it in Cameroon, with her daughter's husband's family and their baby populating the illustrations. In one picture you can also see Lloyd Alexander sitting at a table in the background, with a vulture (or two?) perched above him (I hear he's a hypochondraic from way back). Trina and her ex-husband are also in the same picture.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Achieve happiness through cheating?
10 Nov 2009
Format:Paperback
I picked this book because of a nice illustrations, interesting beginning of the story. An old fortune-teller cheated a young carpenter of his money by making him pay for useless advise, like "you'll be rich when you'll earn a lot of money", "you will live long life if you don't die early" and so on. I expected that the actions of the fortune-teller will be exposed in the story and he will punished.
At home I finished the story. To my horror not only the fortune teller was not punished, but on the first opportunity the carpenter started to defraud others the same way! He also tricked the daughter of his landlord into marrying him by "predicting" that he is her true love... He becomes rich defrauding people. Any remorse? No. He is very happy and remembers the old fortune-teller with warmth.
Needless to say that the book went back were it came from, without my son reading it ...
I give the book a star more than it deserves for the illustrations.
At home I finished the story. To my horror not only the fortune teller was not punished, but on the first opportunity the carpenter started to defraud others the same way! He also tricked the daughter of his landlord into marrying him by "predicting" that he is her true love... He becomes rich defrauding people. Any remorse? No. He is very happy and remembers the old fortune-teller with warmth.
Needless to say that the book went back were it came from, without my son reading it ...
I give the book a star more than it deserves for the illustrations.
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