Mabela The Clever

[Tancredo Dori]

Its not bad. It's got a good message. It's apparently based on a story from the Limba people in the Sierra Leone area of Africa. It's kind of a tale of "the ancient times" where there are a bunch of mice and a cat. The cat is clever and the mice are stupid, except for Mabela the mouse, whose father taught her cleverness. The cat comes to the mice and says, "Dear mice, I come to offer a special invitation. It has been decided that the mice may join the secret Cat Society!" All the mice fall for this, of course, and all of them go to the cat's house at the arranged time, and the cat teaches them all the secret Cat Society song, which goes: "When we are marching, we never look back! The cat is at the end, fo feng! Fo feng!" So they march into the forest in a line, the cat at the end of the line, singing the song loudly, and as they walk, the cat takes the mice from the rear one-by-one and puts them in a sack. Mabela, as the smallest, is in the front. She starts realizing that fewer mice are singing, and then dives into the bushes and the cat gets stuck in some thorns and she frees the mice from the bag and wins.

It's a good example of a story where cleverness wins the day versus cleverness rather than versus fools. She's not particularly clever, though, she's just observant and surrounded by oblivious mice. It's kind of interesting that Mabela is specifically taught cleverness by her father. I'm not sure whether that's good because it shows the father in a nurturing role, or bad because the male is the one who is clever. I'm also not sure why the father isn't also clever. Maybe he teaches it to her without knowing it himself? It certainly implies that he is in the line of mice as well.

I wasn't that interested in the art style. It's kind of strange. And the fact that the story relies on everybody in the story other than the cat and Mabela being complete idiots is what separates this from being higher-rated.

Mabela may be the smallest mouse in the village, but her father has taught her to be clever. And this cleverness comes in handy when the cat comes, inviting everyone to join the secret Cat Society. The mice line up, with Mabela at the front and the Cat at the back. They march into the forest, singing the secret Cat song and shouting FO FENG! Only clever Mabela realizes the Cat is up to no good!

Mabela the Clever is one of my favorite folktale adaptations by Margaret Read MacDonald. This folktale, adapted from the Limba culture in Sierra Leone, is a clever cautionary tale about the importance of keeping your wits about you and paying attention, as told through the perspective of a young mouse who must outsmart a cat soliciting members for its special and secret club.

Would you be scared if an alligator broke into your house? YOU BET YOU WOULD! This tale of three children who get tired of being freaked out by the alligator has a delicious amount of suspense perfect for keeping toddlers on the edge of their story mats, but without causing them to run out the story time room.

The World Bank has confirmed that Morocco is about to become a solar superpower by opening the world's biggest solar plant. The plant on the edge of the Sahara will create electricity for a million homes using these giant mirrors to capture energy from the sun and to generate steam. But the really clever thing about this particular plant is that it can store energy to generate solar power even while it's dark.

Now let's take you to South Africa, and Zimasa Mabela has been on her first patrol after she became the first African woman to command a navy vessel. She broke new ground when she took charge of a de-mining ship based in Cape Town last month. The 38-year-old mum of two says she wants to be judged on her ability to command and not her gender.

3a8082e126