Anansi and the magic stick by Eric A. Kimmel

Bibliography
Kimmel, Eric A. 2001. Anansi and the magic stick. Ill. by Janet Stevens.  New York: Holiday House. ISBN 0-8234-1443-4

Plot summary
Warthog, Lion and Zebra are working hard tiding up their yards, while Anansi is sleeping. When the animals make fun of Anansi's messy yard, he stomps off in anger. Anansi decides to spy on Hyena who always has a clean and tidy house and yard, yet still has time to sleep. Anansi is shocked to see Hyena using a magic stick and steals the stick to clean his own home.  Anansi forgets the magic words and chaos ensues! But where did Anansi go and what's he up to now?

Critical analysis
Kimmel and Stevens have teamed up once again to tell another Anansi story.  Based on a Liberian folktale, Anansi is on familiar ground tricking those around him. Young students will enjoy repeating the rhythmic chant "Hocus pocus, Magic Stick...quick, quick, quick." Stevens' bright and cheerful  watercolor, acrylic, and crayon illustrations have modern touches like tires and aluminum cans strewn around Anansi's yard.  Surprising the reader, Stevens also paints herself and Kimmel in one of the scenes.  Kimmel and Stevens have introduced many children to the trickster Anansi and I hope they continue to bring us more silly tales of this wonderful spider because creating new tricks is "what Anansi does best."

Review excerpt(s)
In Anansi and the Magic Stick by Eric A. Kimmel, illus. by Janet Stevens, the arachnid goes too far. Anansi steals the napping Hyena's magic housekeeping stick to water his garden. Unattended, the water floods the town. Stevens's comic creatures with their surprised expressions add kid appeal. -- Publishers Weekly

...This tale has a more traditional ring to it than Kimmel and Stevens's Anansi and the Talking Melon (Holiday, 1994), but whimsical illustrations add a modern-day appearance. The stick waters with an assortment of up-to-date hoses, watering cans, and a circular sprinkler, and the characters include a warthog in a bathing cap, a hare wearing water wings, and caricatures of the author in a dinosaur tube and the illustrator clutching a brush in her teeth. The art has a softer focus than in Talking Melon but the same bright colors fill the pages, and the whole adds up to an enjoyable offering that is clever, funny, surprising, and traditional all at once. -- School Library Journal

Anansi the Trickster meets the Sorcerer's Apprentice in this story loosely based on a Liberian folktale... Kimmel and Stevens make a good team, with the text fonts echoing the action of the story and the illustrations bringing Anansi and all his antics to life. This is their fourth Anansi collaboration (Anansi and the Talking Melon, 1996, etc.); has the tricky spider learned his lesson this time? Let's hope not-his stories are too amusing. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Kirkus Reviews

...Stevens uses watercolor, acrylic, crayon and "digital elements" plus her robust vision to produce animals bursting with personality, masters at expressing their feelings. She mixes bits of whimsical vegetation and fancy, like a sun-glass-wearing rhino, into her otherwise naturalistic landscape, then adds the author and herself floating in the flood for her own trick. Although it is loosely based on a Liberian tale, the story is not very "African," being reminiscent of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, as well. --Children's Literature

Connections
* Kimmel and Stevens have worked together on other Anansi books.  Have their other books displayed on a table so students can read more Anansi stories.
        -Anansi and the talking melon. 1995. ISBN 978-0823411672
        -Anansi and the moss-covered rock. 1990. ISBN 978-0823407989
        -Anansi's party time. 2009. ISBN 978-0823422418
        - Anansi goes fishing. 1993. ISBN 978-0823410224
* Talk to students about Trickster Tales and have them discuss what it means to be tricked.  Do they like to be tricked?  What is one day of the year that everyone tricks each other (April Fool's Day.) 
* Display a variety of trickster story books so they can read more of this fun genre.
* Have a combination of non-fiction spider, warthog, hyena, zebra and lion books so students can learn about African animals.
* The story is an African folktale.  Have students find Africa on a map, 
* The illustrations use a variety of techniques: watercolor, watercolor crayons, digital elements and acrylic paint.  Have students paint a picture using watercolor, watercolor crayons and acrylic.  After, discuss which they liked better and why.  Were they easy or hard to use?  Did they like the transparent aspect of the watercolors or the opaque acrylic paint?
* The book is available in audio cassette, as well.  Have the audiobook at a listening station so students can listen and read at the same time.  Read by Jerry Terheyden. New York: Live Oak Media. ISBN 978-1591124818.