About the Holiday
African Fabric Month™ was launched in 2016 by Lisa Shepard Stewart of Cultured Expressions, Inc. The celebration “promotes the artistic and practical uses of such fabrics as ankara prints, batik, kuba, adinkra, bogolan/mudcloth, korhogo, adire, kente, and more, and serves to honor and promote the cultures that create them.” While Stewart shares her love for African fabrics year round through special online and in-person events, this month-long holiday puts particular focus on the global positive contributions of the weavers and other textile artists of Africa. To learn more about the holiday as well as ongoing events and activities, visit culturedexpressions.com.
Thank you to Charlesbridge and Barbara Fisch at Blue Slip Media for sending me this book for review!
Anansi and the Talking Cloth
Written by Caroline Brewer with Kwasi Asare | Illustrated by Ekua Holmes
Anansi the spider, chief storyteller and trickster, lives in a city “well-known for its talented weavers, / who work their hands and feet in a fascinating fever” to create “kente, the talking cloth.” Each unique cloth made by the spider weavers tells a story revealing truths, courage, how to spread peace or the fact that “our families are more precious than gold.” The city brims with sunshine, vibrant foliage, music, and smooth transportation. Even the “rainbows glow with a sparkly dew.”
Even though Anansi gathers the spiders together to tell his wise tales, he doesn’t always adhere to them himself. For instance, while the spider weavers create unique and beautiful cloth by hand, many people “strut about in machine-made brands” that are cheap and quickly fashioned, but have no stories to impart, including Anansi! As time passes and sales slip, the weaving industry folds, and the once-vibrant community fades. The kente weavers cry rivers, and Anansi wants to help.
But Anansi doesn’t understand the problem, and instead of staying calm and spreading harmony as he should, he resorts to his trickster ways. He tries to scare the weavers into returning to their looms, but the spider weavers aren’t fooled. With the help of his wife Aso, Anansi finally sees that the “weavers feel mistreated by the spiders of the city.” By buying machine-made cloth, they “rip at the fabric of every weaver’s dream” and destroy “community pride.” Anansi listens to his wife’s suggestions and calls the community together to thank the weavers, but is it too late to restore the sunshine, singing and dancing, vivid colors, and vibrant kente talking cloth to the once hip city?
Back matter includes an Author’s Note discussing the legends and history behind Anansi and kente cloth as well as an Illustrator’s Note about a trip Ekua Holmes recently made to Ghana.
In Anansi and the Talking Cloth, Caroline Brewer, in consultation with master kente-cloth weaver Kwasi Asare, created an original Anansi story, which is at once as timeless as classic Trickster stories and as current as debate over fast fashion versus lasting quality. Brewer’s stylish storytelling weaves rhymes and the spirited rhythms of assonance, consonance, and alliteration to envelope readers in her magical imaginings of spider weavers creating valuable kente talking cloth—a term created by Brewer for the story. The jaunty cadence flows from page to page, making the story a joyful, riveting read aloud. Through Aso’s thoughtful answer to the weavers’ strike, Brewer also strikes a universal chord for showing respect and gratitude.
Ekua Holmes’ electrifying collage illustrations in glorious overlapping hues of blue, orange, red, green, and yellow bring the intricate patterns and vibrant colors of kente cloth to the page. Young readers will be awed by the spider weavers as they use their many arms and legs to weave talking cloth and be fascinated by images of people and spiders mingling in the city, shopping, dancing, making music, and gathering to hear Anansi’s stories.
With underpinnings in Ghanaian culture and the legacy of kente cloth production, Anansi and the Talking Cloth is a highly inventive and jazzy read aloud that is pure fun while also imparting the values of storytelling and guarding precious traditions. The book is a must for any public and school library collection and would be on frequent rotation for home story times.
Ages 5 – 8
Charlesbridge, 2026 | ISBN 978-1623544218
About the Authors
Caroline Brewer is an award-winning children’s book author, artist, environmentalist, literacy consultant, and creator of Nature-Wise, a program for students and teachers that blends literacy and nature exploration. Caroline is also author and illustrator of Harriet Tubman, Force of Nature and author of Say Their Names. She lives in the Washington, DC, metro area. Visit her at carolinebrewerbooks.com.
Kwasi Asare was born in Nsawam, near the capital city of Accra, Ghana, and is one of Africa’s most prominent and accomplished weavers known for kente cloth, the highly prized Ghanaian cloth that traditionally symbolizes royalty, honor, and leadership. For the United Nations’ fiftieth anniversary in 1995, he created a new kente cloth design. Until 2017, it replaced the original cloth created by Kwasi’s father, A. E. Asare. Visit him at kwasiasare.com.
About the Illustrator
Ekua Holmes was awarded a Caldecott Honor, Coretta Scott King’s John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award, Robert Siebert Award, and Boston Globe–Horn Book award for Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, her first illustration project. She won the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration twice: Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets and Stuff of Stars. Visit her at ekuaholmes.com.
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