THE FUTURE-TELLING LADY
and Other Stories
by James Berry
Like Berry's stories in A Thief in the Village (1988), these vignettes illuminate both special and universal aspects of West Indian life as seen through children's eyes. An apprehensive boy faces a daily challenge in ``Son-Son Fetches the Mule''; another can't bring himself to perform his rap-rhyme before Granny-May; Yuuni persuades her younger brother that a disgusting broth made of bats and insects is ``Magic To Make You Invisible.'' Berry links past (Sherena meets 300-year-old ghosts of people who died in the Port Royal earthquake) and future (a kindly woman story helps young Neil and Wendy solve personal problems by ``reading'' from their adult diaries) to a vividly realized present, closing with an allegorical folktale about a hen who foolishly relies on mongooses for justice. Strong, genuine, and (except for the last) happy tales from a talented writer. (Short Stories. 10-13)