Linda Goss

www.barnesandnoble.com
Annotation
Spanning centuries, continents and cultures, this collection brings together the diverse and enduring heritage of black storytelling. Collected here are family stories and moral fables, ghost stories and tales rich in humor, along with raps and rhymes, memoirs and commentaries, and songs, stories and poems about freedom, protest, and the change.

From the Publisher
Jump Up and Say! features more than seventy stories about the wide range of the Black experience, including traditional tales from Africa and the West Indies. Collected here are family stories and moral fables, ghost stories and tales rich in humor, as well as raps and rhymes, memoirs and songs, and stories and poems about freedom, protest, and change. In this collection, voices spanning centuries, continents, and cultures blend to celebrate the African-American storytelling tradition.

From The Critics
Library Journal
"Jump up and say" is a phrase with roots in the black church. As a rule, the black storyteller usually "leaps out" at the audience and forces the listener to "wake up!" In this anthology of stories, poems, fables, and songs, editors Linda Goss (coauthor of Talk That Talk, LJ 12/89) and her playwright husband, Clay Goss, present a wide diversity of storytellers ranging from the famous (Zora Neale Hurston) to the not-so-famous (E.J. Stewart). There are memories about family and friends from Alice Walker, Malcolm X, and Langston Hughes and rhythm talk from Gwendolyn Brooks and Miles Davis. From others like Jackie Torrence, Mary Carter Smith, Charlotte Blake Alston, and Rex Ellis we get humorous tales and stories and poems of protest and change. The result is a mixed bag that will alternately put readers to sleep or keep them riveted and smiling, depending on the subject matter. Many of the pieces are tall tales stretched to the limit; a few are true, others are truly bizarre. Some are even nonsensical and boring. And why include children's stories? A marginal purchase for black history collections.-Ann Burns, "Library Journal"… (más)