Book Analysis

Little Black Sambo

Author: Helen Bannerman

Pictures: Gustaf Tenggren

Year of Publication: 1899

The Children’s book that I chose to evaluate it called Little Black Sambo written by Helen Bannerman and illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren. Little Black Sambo is a childrens book about a child name Little Black Sambo who got all new clothes that his father bought for him from the Bazaar. He then wore his clothes outside and there was four tigers that tried to take all his clothing from him and wear his clothing to be the fanciest tiger in the jungle. The Tigers then fight each other over who has the fanciest item and soon fought each other and no longer cared about the clothes the took. Little Black Sambo took his clothes back and the Tigers fought each other so hard that they turned into butter. Then the Sambo family ate the Tigers in the Pancakes they made.

            On the front cover it has a picture of Little Black Sambo, which from the picture you would guess that his race was African American but as you read on you learn that He is from India. The front cover is a picture of a little boy wearing a diaper and one of the Tigers that took his umbrella from him. Throughout the book they had a picture of the mother and father who are dressed in semi normal Indian wear for that time. There seems to be not to detailed of pictures in this book very self-explanatory.

            The first subject to talk about is the title of the book and the name of the boy. It has been said that because of this book there was controversy that followed the word Samba. It is said that this book turned the word Samba into a racial slur used by people. There was many pirated versions of this book since it was written so early on but those different versions all incorporated more stereotypes of “ black” people. They did make a version that came out in Japan that was not considered to be racially wrong.

            Throughout the dialogue it is easy for me to read and understand and it would be easy for children to understand as well who reads English. The only word they throw in there that might need further explaining would be Bazaar and they tell you that melted butter in India is called Ghi. The butter is explained and the Bazaar would have to be told once but other than that the child would be able to understand. While reading over it you would think the person who wrote it might have had one friend who taught them a couple words used in India not someone that understood the culture.

            The other part of the book that I did not know for sure but felt that they might have been portraying the Tigers as the “ white” people at that time in history. It has pictures of these lighter furred Tigers who want to take all of Little Black Sambos things so they can look the best. Then the Tigers end up fighting each other over who is the better Tiger and the fanciest and care less about Little Black Sambo. Is the Tigers a metaphor for the “ white” people taking things from the “black” people and not caring what the things were just caring that they had the best while the others were left to be clothes less.

            The thing that bothered me like I had touched upon earlier is that the author and the illustrator have a sense as to Indian culture but such a little amount was incorporated in this book. The author is from London and the illustrator is from Sweden and you get the sense that they maybe had one encounter with someone from India. They then wrote and illustrated a book but with such little information that it does not teach people about the culture. Before reading the book I thought that the boy was “ black” for obvious reasons. They then only threw in a couple words to make it seem like they were honoring a culture which I did not see them do correctly in this book. I do feel like for a kids book that they did use Tigers in the right way as something considered to be feared in the jungle.

            While reading this book I did uncover more than I thought I was going to find. First that Sambo became a racial term because of this book. Second the possibility of the tigers having a more diverse role then we might think. Also the way that the culture was not portrayed as well as I had wished. All together the book is not one I think our children need to read. To be honest the story line is confusing and it does not make sense as to why Little black Sambo and his family end up eating the Tigers. To me it is irrelevant but it probably has a hidden meeting