In her rich introduction, Maria Tatar explains that the Annotated African American Folktales "aims to capture stories from times past... as collective forms of cultural expression." She acknowledges the scribes, journalists, authors and storytellers who transformed early performances--which many repudiated because of their associations with slavery--into written word, allowing them to live on as part of the country's literary canon. This collection offers history, literary and sociology buffs a robust assortment of tales, myths and legends that entertain, instruct and inspire, from early African stories, such as the Anansi legends, through Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus tales to Caribbean and Latin American folklore. This beautiful anthology, complete with full-color illustrations and supplemental text as fascinating as the stories themselves, is a colossal gem for any reader. --Jen Forbus, freelancer