TIBILI: The Little Boy Who Didn't Want to Go to School

First published in France, this tale set on the African savannah puts an exotic spin on the familiar story of the reluctant first-time school-goer. Tibili is such a happy child that sometimes he "even laughs himself to sleep." But the thought of starting school fills him with dismay. Who wants to look at a chalkboard all day? Seeking truancy advice from the animals, Tibili is told by Crope the wise spider that a magical Box of Knowledge will give him "what you are looking for." But when he discovers that using the Box of Knowledge requires basic literacy skills—a flock of guinea hens mocks him for his illiteracy—the prospect of school suddenly becomes more inviting. The text is brisk and pointed, yet peppered with poetic interludes; when a sulking Tibili pooh-poohs reading, Léonard writes, "He would rather read like his grandfather, not from a piece of paper, but from the sky, where the sun sings during the day and the moon dances during the night." Prigent's sunny, accomplished pastels are stylized, rendered as if by a child, with the result that her figures convey an instinctive joie de vivre. Often appearing several to a spread, however, the illustrations seem cramped by the book's smallish format. Ages 3-7. (Mar.)