Sometimes the bookshop at the museum is more inspiring than the exhibition. The exhibition, I am talking about was well received, so it is probably my lack of understanding (or interest) of the subject than the quality of the curated work. But then, there is always the shop. And in such a shop I found this nice booklet about tales from the Caribbean. Probably a leftover from another exhibition.
Since an uncle offered me to use his house in Antigua for a few weeks, I started to love the region. Sitting on the veranda I made some sketches and enjoyed life as a student on a luxury holiday.
Finding stories about the history of the region is not difficult but there is also a history of narratives. Stories you tell your children to entertain them and explain important thing of life. Like, why are cats and rats not friends.
There are many funny differences between the stories we tell our children in Europe and what Caribbean children hear. For instance there are no smart foxes to mislead you and no wolfs to eat you but there are smart spiders and hungry barracudas. There are also some similar elements. All animals talk and stepmothers are always bad.
Tales from the Caribbean is a wonderful book to read especially under the Caribbean sun.
