How the Leopard Got His Claws (review)

Noted Nigerian writer/scholar Achebe here offers a pourquoi tale for young audiences. In this peaceful jungle setting, the leopard is king, and no animals save the dog have sharp teeth or claws. After being excluded from the community shelter for non-contribution, the dog stages a coup, and the animals name him king in place of the leopard. The leopard then adopts teeth and claws himself (fashioned from metal by a blacksmith) and returns to the village with a vengeance ("You shameless cowards. I was a kind and gentle king, but you turned against me. From today I shall rule the forest with terror"), and from that day forward the animals live as enemies. This original tale touches upon themes of liberation and justice, from the populace's willingness to transfer allegiances to the dog's violent usurpation of the kingship to the leopard's brutal return to power. Unfortunately, the audience is likely to miss many of the post-colonial implications, and the text-heavy narrative will be daunting to younger listeners who might be content with the folkloric level of the tale. Grandpré's dense acrylic illustrations are striking, though; the early spreads are as joy-filled as the later ones are dark and foreboding, and the closeups of animal faces are particularly powerful. This will likely require extra time for reading aloud, both because of its length and its heady content, but listeners may enjoy this dark tale of the establishment of the current state of the animal kingdom.