TIBILI

Set in Africa and originally published in France in 1996, Léonard’s freshman fable about the value of education gets a second run in the US. Newcomer Prigent’s folkloric illustrations, which appear to be rendered in oil pastels, introduce readers to the eponymous hero. “Tibili is a happy little boy who laughs all the time, morning to night,” reads the opening text, organized vertically beside the sideways-standing child. But Tibili stops smiling when his mother says he’ll soon start school. A series of panels conveys the boy’s impending sense of doom. In the first, the rising sun casts a fiery glow on the edge of the golden savannah. The second pictures an ominous blackboard shouting a simple equation in bold white chalk. With the school year fast approaching, Tibili seeks the advice of his animal friends. “What can I do so I don’t have to go to school?” Only Crope the spider has a sensible reply. “Go find the Box of Knowledge,” he says. “Open it, and you will find what you are looking for.” But because Tibili hasn’t learned how to read yet, the directions on the bottom of the box mean nothing. “He can’t read!” taunts an observant guinea hen. “He can’t read!” Which, of course, is all it takes to change Tibili’s opinion on education. A nice addition to multicultural collections. (Picture book. 4-7)