Review: Six Fools
The Six Fools by Zora Neale Hurston, adapted by Joyce Carol Thomas, illustrated by Ann Tanksley (HarperCollins, 2006)
When a foolish bride-to-be and her parents let a cask of apple cider floods her basement while daydreaming about the name of her future child, her young man declares he won’t have her until he finds three fools bigger than the ones sitting in the pool of cider.
And find them he does, as he encounters a man trying to jump into his clothes, a farmer trying to get a cow to eat the grass on the barn roof, and a woman trying to push a wheelbarrow of sunshine into her house to dry her scrubbed floor. After all this foolishness, will the young man finally have his bride back?
Zora Neale Hurston traveled the Gulf States in the 1930’s to gather and preserve the rich oral history and legacy of the African-American people of the south. The Six Fools was among the many tales she recorded. Now Joyce Carol Thomas retells the tale for young people. Ann Tanksley’s raw and vibrant illustrations capture a retro 30’s looks, fitting the times in which the story was first recorded. Their child-like charm captures the exuberance of this tall tale.
