A Bakongo creation tale tells how very first crab brags that he will turn out finer than all the other wonderful animals Nzambi Mpungu has made. Traditional African society taught that it was important to support each other and make the whole community stronger, not just think of yourself. Self-confidence may be rewarded, but boasting is frowned on. So, in her great wisdom, Nzambi Mpungu never gave that crab a head at all, and he still walks sideways with embarrassment about all that bragging.

This was my very first published book. I wanted to draw and write about animals and Africa, two of my favorite subjects. I knew this story would be fun to illustrate. It’s a story about the creation of all the animals, so I could put in any creature I’d like to draw. You can find all my favorite African animals in the pictures: kudu, warthog, giraffe, leopard, elephant, guinea fowl (yes, I have a lot of favorite animals) and my favorite animal to have in the house (none of the above): a dog.

“Why didn’t you color in the pictures?” children often ask. When I looked at African art for ideas, I found many examples were in just two colors—black designs scratched or burned onto brown wood or yellow gourds. They looked simple and powerful and beautiful. So I decided to scratch my illustrations onto scratchboard – just white lines on black ink.

You can buy scratchboard with lots of colors under the black or just white underneath. Scratch the black away with stick or a paperclip. Great for night and underwater scenes!