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Overview
An African Fairy tale the enchanted toy is a magical story with breathtaking illustrations created by a recognized illustrator who painted for Maya Angelou as well as other profound celebrities. The story is as beautiful as the illustrations. It is a great book for both boys and girls. The story takes place in Ancient Africa amongst luscious jungles, beautiful elegant palaces, small villages as well as describing everyday life, ancient African Customs and words. It is about a brave little blind boy who meets a deaf girl in ancient Africa who together beat the odds of loneliness, slavery, poverty, hardship, and the jealousy of a princess, by their wit, a beautiful magical toy. You will experience fabulous parties, fatting huts, African Royalty, everyday people, as well as other aspects of ancient African life. You will fall in love with the characters, the plot, and the illustrations.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781685360900 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Westwood Books Publishing, LLC |
| Publication date: | 12/10/2021 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 124 |
| File size: | 168 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
| Age Range: | 6 - 12 Years |
Read an Excerpt
An African Tale of the Enchanted Toy
By Joseph Pollakoff
AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2015 Joseph PollakoffAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5049-2127-5
CHAPTER 1
Long, long ago in a small Nubian village, in Africa, lived a poor little blind boy, named Tumaini. In those ancient times all poor children had to work, or be sold as slaves. Poor children did not own toys as their parents could not afford to buy them. Sending a child to school required money, so poor children did not go to school and never learned to read and write.
They stayed poor even after they grew up. Entertainment, toys and school were considered luxuries for only the royal and rich children in the kingdom. Rich children spent most of their days being entertained, and had servants to do their chores.
Poor children had to work as hard as adults, sometimes harder in order to not get sold as slaves. They would get paid one cowry shell which was worth less than a penny for a day's work. Cowry shells are small white shells that were used as money in many African kingdoms. It was not unusual to see five-year old boys, digging ditches for ten hours a day, in the hard, baked, African dirt. When the earth baked in the sun too long without rain, it made the dirt, like cement, too hard to break open and the child ended up earning nothing, for working all day just trying to dig a hole and not succeeding. When the weather permitted and, the child was able to dig ditches, he would be paid only one shell for the whole day's work. One cowry shell was not enough to buy even one flat loaf of bread. Children did not complain about the hard work, as they would rather work hard then be sold as a slave. Children felt very lucky when they got a job inside scrubbing hut floors, so they would not have to be outside feeling the burning heat.
Since there was little work for a blind child and all poor children had to work, it was difficult to find any work for little Tumaini. No one in the village would hire him because they would rather hire children with sight, for the same wage. Blindness never stopped little Tumaini from giving up his hope to earn wages to help feed his poor family.
Tumaini means "hope" in the African language of Swahili, and Tumaini was true to his name. Even though he was limited by his blindness, he never gave up hope.
Tumaini tried harder than all the rest of the children in the village and learned how to do things without using vision. Even though things did not come easy to him, he would always try and try until he mastered whatever it was he was trying to do. Due to being blind he knew he had to work harder than everyone else, otherwise he would end up being a slave and losing his freedom. He felt hope changed things and made them turn out for the best.
Since Tumaini could not get a job digging ditches, as that required sight his family decided he could earn money by selling fruit at the main road that led into the village. His father taught him how to tell the difference between the different coins and how to count and make change by feeling them.
His mother taught him how to select the fruit by smelling it and touching it for ripeness. If he could not clearly smell the fruit it was not ripe and if it was too soft and squished easily it was too ripe to sell. His mother taught him how to bargain with the farmers and to put the selected fruit in a cloth bag so it would not be switched afterward for fruit of lesser quality by dishonest farmers.
In order for Tumaini to sell the fruit, one of his brothers or sisters would walk with him down the dirt road. He could not walk alone on the dirt road as there were too many dangers to encounter. One day walking to work Tumaini heard steps in back of him and his brother. His brother said the noise came from a small deaf girl who the brother previously encountered. The little girl took Tumaini's little hand and from that day forward the little girl would walk with him down the road and stay with him during the whole day.
The little deaf girl's name was Natasha. In African Natasha means, "I am thankful." She sold clothing on the dusty dirt road during the daytimes and in the evenings she sewed and embroidered clothes to sell the next day.
The two children became such good friends they were inseparable. They now had each other for company and felt happy with each other. They never had a conversation with speech, because Natasha could not speak. However, this never stopped Tumaini from talking to Natasha. He would talk nonstop on the way to the roadside and continue to talk to her all day.
Natasha was able to read lips. She spoke to him by making hand gestures while holding his small hand to her mouth. For instance, when she was hungry or thirsty, she would hold his tiny hand to her throat and swallow.
To learn the word flower she picked a beautiful blossom and put it up to his nose to smell and drew it in the dust with his hand. If she was sad, she would put his hand on her face and he would feel the tears running down her cheeks. If she was happy, she would put his hand on her smile so he could feel her joy.
Natasha was a very pretty girl. Her ancestors came to her village over 200 years ago from the Bemba tribe in Zambia, Central Africa. She had long, black, curly hair that hung all the way down to the back of her knees. Her large twinkling brown eyes, spoke of her dreams, and were covered by eye lashes longer than any girl or woman's in the village. Her eyelids and lips were the color of the brownish-red Mahogany tree and her skin the color of the strong Ebony Tree. But, the most beautiful thing about her was her smile. Watching her smile was like watching the sunrise. When she smiled it would make whoever she was with smile too.
Tumaini never saw her long, black, curly hair, her twinkling eyes or the beautiful smile. He did not need to. He already knew she was beautiful by knowing who she was and not how she looked. Tumaini saw the beauty within her as he was unable to see the beauty without.
No matter what the weather, it was Tumaini's job to sell fruit. On rainy days he wore a hat covered with wax that Natasha made him and stayed under the protection of a large green rubber tree. He and Natasha never complained because they felt lucky to be able to work at all, and enjoyed each other's company.
Not all the children in the village were poor and had to work. Some children had rich parents and even some were even royalty. These children had servants, went to school, owned toys and wore beautiful clothing with designs and different colors . To amuse them, their parents hired storytellers, actors, singers and clowns. There were no televisions or electronic games, as they were not invented yet.
Since the only children who owned toys were rich children, there wasn't a large need for toymakers. Twelve villages shared only one toymaker. This toymaker was known for making toys in all the surrounding kingdoms. He was so talented he made toys for the royal families of several kingdoms. There were no finer toys made even in Europe. All his toys looked good enough for any prince or princess. He was a good man with a kind heart and put goodness, kindness and thought into each one of the toys he made. That is what made the toys so special. The love he put into the toys made them beautiful.
The toymaker would rather spend all of his time making toys than do anything else. He treated his toys like a good parent treats his child. He put love, care and thought into each toy, just like a good parent puts love, care and thought into raising his child. He would often lose track of time spending several days just making one toy. When he wasn't making toys he would dream about making toys.
He got his ideas about making toys from his dreams. He saw the toys in his dreams. Upon awakening, he would draw a picture of the toy he dreamed about. He then made the toy by carving the pieces out of wood or soft stone, gluing the pieces together with tree sap and then painting the toy. The toys were painted with scenes that looked like paintings in the king's pink stone palace. In the scenes you could see dragons, flying creatures, flowers, and even strange animals in people's clothing.
It was not unusual to see a toy puppy that looked so real you wanted to cuddle it. The favorite royal toys were monkeys painted yellow that walked with mouths that opened and closed. Games were carved from the rare, black, shiny ebony tree and had sparkling jeweled pieces. Dolls were princesses in fine clothing, flying fairies and Mami Wata the mermaid. Houses and villages were created as small as your thumb or as large as a room. Electricity and batteries were not yet invented, so moving toys took longer to make and were so expensive only a prince or princess could afford them.
During one really hot summer, the toymaker fell asleep and had a dream about a spinning top. It was a very strange dream. In the dream the toymaker was in a place he had never been, but somehow the place seemed like home and familiar. He remembered someone he loved telling him how to make the top, but could not remember who that person was. The top did wonderful things, but he could not remember the wonderful things were.
When the toymaker awoke from his dream, he put wood in the fire pit for his morning meal. He looked at the wood he was carrying and discovered a piece of wood that was the exact shape of the top in his dream. He was so excited he started working on the toy and forgot his meal. He carved the inside removing the wood and made it hollow. He made very tiny bells smaller than the size of his daughter's thumbnail. The bells were made out of hammered gold and silver. He hammered them over and over until they were thinner than a piece of paper and attached them inside by thin silver wire.
He made the top from wood and painted it sky blue with white clouds and black birds that seemed to move. The birds waved their wings in flight circling moving clouds when the top was spun around in circles. The top and bottom of the toy were made with polished gold and inlaid with small dark jewels forming a design that looked like writing. The inside of the top was hollow and contained metal bells held by very small chains that moved and made music. If one listened hard enough it would sound as if the bells were singing every time the top moved. When he finished painting the top, he went three days without eating or sleeping.
Once the toy was completed, the toymaker realized how tired he was. He tried to ignore his fatigue and wanted to test and play with the toy, he just made. He spun the top and it seemed to dance. He watched the black birds fly moving quicker and quicker with a life of their own. The bells started to sing sounding like the song of chirping birds. The jewels sparkled so much they seemed to light up.
The toymaker thought about the toy and who was to receive it. He then thought to himself that he needed to sleep and get a good night's rest. Drowsiness overtook him and he fell asleep holding the top.
This time he did not dream of making toys like he usually did every night, although one of the toys was the subject of his dreams. It was the top. In this dream he was having a conversation with the same, mysterious, familiar voice. The voice was coming from behind a cloud and when he tried to look harder at the image of the cloud it floated away.
"You did a wonderful job as usual. This toy will bring great happiness. I see you made the top exactly like the one in your dream. It is a very special toy and will change the life of the children who own it. It has a very special job to do," said the mysterious voice.
"I am not sure how to go about that?" the toymaker said.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from An African Tale of the Enchanted Toy by Joseph Pollakoff. Copyright © 2015 Joseph Pollakoff. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse.
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