Bryan, Ashley. 1993. The story of lightning & thunder. New York: Atheneum. ISBN 0689318367
Plot Summary
This is the story of a mother sheep named Thunder and her son, a ram, named Lightning derived from an old Nigerian folktale. Thunder and Lightning lived in an African village where they would spend their days chatting and being pet by the villagers. Whenever the villagers needed rain, Thunder and Lightning would go to the mountains and call rain clouds to come and water the crops. The villagers were so happy about this that they had a celebration for Thunder and Lightning. At the celebration, Lightning was so determined to show off his horns to the king that he charged through the crowd knocking everyone over. This upset the king so much that he banished Thunder and Lightning to the outskirts of the village to protect the villagers from Lightning's destruction. Thunder then kept an eye on Lightning but that did not stop him from causing more trouble. At the market, Lightning accidentally knocked down an entire stack of straw hats and got into an altercation with the straw maker which made the king decide to banish them even further into the forest. In the forest, Lightning got into yet another fight, this time with an ox and when running away, the sparks from his coat caught the crops on fire. Thunder and Lightning were able to call rain in time to put the fires out but the king was still furious and banished them to live forever in the sky where we know them to live today.
Critical Analysis
This is a pour quoi tale that gives children an idea of what thunder and lightning does and why. The setting of this tale is vague but gives the reader a good idea of where to begin when imagining it. The setting is discussed on the first page of the story and is said to be in a village on the west coast of Africa. The theme of this story is boastfulness. Lightning would not get into so much trouble if he wasn't always concerned with showing off how strong and tough he is.
The style of this story makes it very interesting. First, there are elements of super natural. Thunder and her song Lightning have the ability to go high into the mountain and call their friend rain to come and water the crops. There was also repeated elements in the story that captured the sound of spoken language in print. An example of this is seen periodically throughout the story when the author would say something followed by an "uh-huh". The spoken language is also evident on the very last page where the author says "I know somebody like that too, uh-huh, I do, but I'm not saying who.".
The illustrations in this story really capture the style of Africa. The colors the illustrator used are bright and are similar to many images we see of Africa with straight lines and visuals of earth elements like fire, water, and the sky. The illustrations also help the reader imagine the setting of the story. We see pictures of the village, mountains, forests, and crops. The images of the villagers are also extremely helpful in this book. By seeing these images, the young readers can get an idea of African dress, instruments, and festival celebrations.
Review Excerpts
- Publishers Weekly-"Joyful in both word and palette"
- Kirkus Review-"A delightful adaptation of a Nigerian folktale"
Connections
*More stories by Ashley Bryan
--Beautiful Blackbird ISBN 9780689847318
--The Night Has Ears: African Proverbs ISBN 9780689824272
*Find clips on YouTube about life in Nigeria that include video of classrooms, music, and marketplaces to give the readers a glimpse into real life Africa.
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