Clever Hare and the Well

An African Folktale

Children - Picture Book
Kindle Edition
Reviewed on 07/30/2024
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Author Biography

Bekezela Broscius writes picture books and middle grade novels. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University and was born and raised in Zimbabwe. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and son. Her relatives in Zimbabwe shared animal folktales, which inspired her to write Clever Hare and the Well. When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite

There is a long drought affecting all the animals in the wilderness. When Elephant suggests the animals work together to dig for water, everyone but Hare takes a turn helping out. In Bekezela Broscius’s Clever Hare and the Well, Hare uses sneaky tricks to get a drink of water from the well. The other animals soon catch onto his sneaky ways and plan to teach him a lesson. Will Hare learn that his antics aren’t appreciated and that everyone needs to work together for the well-being of the entire community? He certainly has a lot of work to do to make up for his mischief.

Bekezela Broscius’s picture book, Clever Hare and the Well: An African Folktale, teaches valuable lessons in collaboration and working together to solve a problem. Told in the gentle voice of a storyteller, the language is simple to help young readers follow along and improve their reading skills. The illustrations by Fatima Jillani are bright, bold, and colorful and help move the story forward. Young readers will learn about the different animals in the African wilderness. Each animal is introduced with some of their notable characteristics, like Elephant and his trunk, Giraffe and his long neck, and Tortoise who is always slow. Hare is characterized as clever in a deceitful way and young readers will chuckle at his sneaky antics, but they’ll also learn that tricking others isn’t the best way to fit in and get along. There are a lot of lessons shared in this gem of a story.