A WAVE IN HER POCKET

The author of Coconut Kind of Day (1990) returns to the Caribbean to present a series of six vignettes featuring traditional folklore. The storyteller is Tantie, a great-aunt who is larger-than-life to narrator Amber and her cousins. Tantie has a tale for every occasion: one about the witch-like soucouyant for a picnic; one featuring Ligahoo, a powerful shape-changer, for the rainy season; or one about graveyard jumbies to explain the absence of neighbors. The most affecting narratives are the title story, concerning Tantie's lost love, and another about her encounter with papa Bois, a beloved figure in Trinidad. Less formal folktales than flavorful slices of life, all shaped into a continuous narrative uniting the family with stories. An afterword tells more about the legends. Pinkney's skillfully evocative b&w scratchboard illustrations nicely match the spirit of the text. An entertaining introduction to a relatively unfamiliar folk tradition. Glossary. (Fiction/Folklore. 8-12)