Rating: 
Summary: Memories from childhood
Review: Reading this story again brought back the 100s of times my mother told me this story. I can hear her voice changing, especially Little Black Sambo say "Puhleeeeeze Mr. Tiger, don't eat me up. I'll give you... etc. And how the tiger walked proudly with the clothes etc. It was a story that I especially enjoyed about the tigers going around the tree so fast and becoming butter.
I sometimes think of that image when having pancakes w/ my grandchildren and recall how my mother also told my children the story and we all were sitting around the breakfast table with the melting butter (and syrup).Setting the story in India often gets lost over the years and some may choose to see the story as racist. When told by a gifted story teller, there is no racism in this charming story.
My mother had been trained in elementary education and taught in several one room schools in Idaho. She delighted my children and grandchildren over the years. A wonderful memory.
Rating:
Summary: Little Black Sambo
Review: What a wonderful children's story. I remember hearing it as a child over 45 years ago. We used to go to Sambo's Restaurant. I loved to look at the story pages on the walls and see how many pancakes I could eat. I can still remember pretending I was eating my pancakes with TIGER BUTTER (GRRRR). What a SHAME it is to for adults to ruin this enchanting story by bringing their politically correct or incorrect opinions into a child's world of wonder. I remember thinking what it would be like to walk through jungles and see exotic animals. The illustrations in the book are GREAT. Just what a child would imagine. I enjoyed it just as much as I did the very first time. I bought a copy for my wife, who also enjoyed the story and one for each of my three grown children. A great story is just that, a great story. Keep the politics out and let the kids enjoy being kids for as long as they can.
Rating: 
Summary: They do not want it Sam I am
Review: Well, it raises enough issues to keep literary scholars blabbing on for years and years. Following in the mighty footsteps of two other recent "Little Black Sambo" adaptations (one Fred Marcellino's "The Story of Little Babaji" and the other Julius Lester's complete reinterpretation "Sam and the Tigers") Christopher Bing's version of Helen Bannerman's original 1899 children's book is perhaps the purest retelling of the tale. Using the author's own words while replacing her pictures with beautiful woodcut-like illustrations, the story is a true labor of love. Where to begin? When Helen Bannerman first wrote the story of Sambo for her children, she had no idea that her Beatrix Potter-like invention (both women began publishing children's books in similar ways) would be the source of so much controversy and contempt. So let's say that we're a child that has stumbled across this edition without knowing a thing about its history. To them, this is a gorgeous story filled with light and color and a young boy beating those more powerful around him. The book has stayed true to the original in that it is set in India but features black characters. So there's some danger that kids will believe some Africans live in an India-like country. Otherwise, there's not much fault (in terms of the book in and of itself) to find with this retelling. Bing has obviously spent an inordinate amount of time researching and questioning his creation. We shouldn't ignore the fact that the great Henry Louis Gates Jr. (the Chair of Afro-American Studies at Harvard, doncha know) not only approved of this work but encouraged its publication. So for me, it's a success (though I'm a little leery of the Bing picture on the bookflap presenting him as a colonist). For some people, however, the very names of the characters (Sambo, Mumbo, and Jumbo) combined with the history of the tale are reason enough not to approve of this book. To them, a story like this can only make it seem "okay" that children be called Sambo. For others, the true crime of the original was not the story (in which a black boy outwits nasty predators) but the pictures. Remove the offending articles and replace with far better ones and the problem is completely solved. For me, I dunno. There's little doubt in my mind that Bing's book is breathtakingly beautiful. But every adult I've showed it to so far has been unable to get past the title. I would show them the gorgeous endpapers and faux aged binding (meant, I can only assume, to recreate the book as it SHOULD have appeared those one hundred odd years ago). I would patiently explain that Ms. Bannerman did not intend the story character, Sambo, to be associated with blacks in the United States. But even today the sting of that name is as powerful as ever. It may take one hundred or two hundred more years to undo some of its damage. Maybe at that point people will be able to read this particular edition for what it truly is. A loving work of beauty and skill. If you've any problems with the idea of making "Little Black Sambo" palatable to members of the 21st century, do not buy this book. If, however, you're a little curious and incredibly aware of the potential controversy engendered by this title, seriously consider buying it. At the very least, it stands as a true testament of how far we've come, and how far we've yet to go.
Rating:
Summary: Classic story for children
Review: When my wife asked me to try and find several classic children's books for her new baby grandson, I smiled at the mention of the titles, recalling with great fondness the stories being read to me by my mother when I was a child. Little Black Sambo was one of those stories. It is, of course, a shame that there arose some time ago individuals who equated the story with "racism". To the intelligent mind, it is truly a pity that some are so intent to find "racism" that they will envision same where none even vaguely exists.Such is the case with this fanciful, harmless classic story for children; a story that has been told to generations of children who have listened in wonder as the tigers melted into butter for (the little Indian boy) Sambo's pancakes!It is a story that returns one to a simpler time, long before child psychologists, political correctness (and who indeed is qualified to judge what is or is not CURRENTLY "correct"? Perhaps we're better off not knowing their identities, God help us!), shootings committed by school children, and all the other wonders of this wonderful Modern Age.Little Black Sambo is an American classic. As for racism: it can be found wherever one desires to find it. And if it exists not where they look, tis easy enough to invent.
Rating:
Summary: Classic children's tale
Review: "The Little Black Sambo" is a beautifully told story that ranks among my all time favorite children's books alongside "The Chink Who Saved Christmas", "The Three Little Polocks", "The Little Injun' Who Scalped" and "Pancho: The Lazy Llama who came here illegally and stole my job". How could anyone call a story written by a white English woman in colonial India racist? Indians aren't black and racism only involves black people. Also, I'm white and therefore am tired of all these "politically correct" attacks on things I grew up with. I mean, come on people, a couple hundred years of slavery followed by decades of social and legal inequality that only began to really wane in the 1960s and now you all have a chip on your shoulder! You'd think "Little Black Sambo" was a hurtful racial epithet people routinely used against your granparents or something! Seriously folks - I remember this story as a kid too (and I'm only 26) and I used to eat at the "Sambo's" pancake houses that used the story on their menus and such. I liked it too, it's a decent kid's story once you take the stereotypical illustrations and racist terms out of it - which people have. I don't think the objection is about the plot of a little boy turning tigers into pancakes. It's the fact that this was a story written by a white person about people that her generation thought were inferior at a time when all dark skinned people were called "black". And the fact that term "Little Black Sambo" later became, logically or not, a racist term used by white people against blacks. The book shouldn't be banned and older kids and adults should probably read as an example of our history. But little kids can do without the racist imagery that they aren't old enough to process. I don't think it will make them racist, but imagine a classroom with a mixed group of kids. Do you really want them looking at an original version, illustrations and all, possibly making comparisons. "Hey sammy, you look just like Sambo" There's nothing wrong with modernizing it to make it a little less offensive. Do people sometimes take political correctness too far, absolutely. But do we really have to have an argument over a book that has a title with such a patently racist term? This should be a no brainer.
Rating:
Summary: Little Black Sambo
Review: I am so glad to have found this book. When I was a little girl, my dad would tell us bedtime stories. This seemed to be his favorite. I thought he made it up. I brings back such wonderful memories.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful book with great illustrations
Review: This is a delightful book with excellent illustrations. Anyone who feels this book is racist may be a bit of one themself.
I had the book as a child and was always fascinated by the tigers turning into butter. I grew up without prejudice or racism and have friends of all races and nationalities. People need to start being open-minded again and not read bad or "politically incorrect" things into everything. This is a very good child's book and I would recommend it. I am very happy it is still in print and I could purchase it at such a reasonable price.
Rating: 
Summary: Buy Something else
Review: Until I read the history of this book, I thought Little Black Sambo was a harmless story about a little black boy who is clever enough to trick the tigers. Closer examination of the book reveals the use of hurtful stereotypes such as the pejorative name of Sambo. The Oxford English Dictionary definition reads: 1. Sambo is a nickname for a Negro. Now used only as a term of abuse. Also attributed especially with reference to the appearance or subservient mentality held to be typical of the black American slave. The qualities of a Sambo include being shiftless, dolt, lazy, docile, and happy to be a slave. Additional stereotypes can be found in the illustrations. Sambo's skin is abnormally black, like a minstrel player's black face, and he has exaggerated unnatural red lips. Other reviewers stated if you over look these two flaws, this is a good book. There is no excuses for reading this racist book to children when so many equally entertaining books that do not insult other people exist. Unless you are teaching a lesson on stereotypes, this reviewer suggests that you purchase something other than Little Black Sambo. That includes the equally flawed remakes of Little Baji and Sam and the Tigers.
Rating:
Summary: NOT Racist?
Review: I give this book four stars as a historical curiosity. But apparently, as indicated by some other reviews, there are people who still read this ridiculous book to their children because they think it's... um... good. I don't think this book should be banned or anything, but it should be viewed for what it is: dated, racist nonsense. Are reviewers who dismiss charges of racism unaware of the significance of the name "Sambo," and how racially charged it is? Could they justify their claims if this tale of a dark-skinned boy was instead called "The Story of Little Black N*****"? Sambo in this book is indeed Indian, as some reviewers have noted. But again, are the book's fans unaware of the Britsh racism that Indians faced? (If not, I recommend that they at least rent "Ghandi" this weekend to get a sense of what Indian life under British rule was like.) Bannerman was British, after all. Furthermore, I see little evidence that it even mattered to Bannerman or readers of this book when it first came out whether it was about Indians or Africans -- as subjects of the British Empire they all served as the White Man's Burden, did they not? Moreover, I'm suggesting that the tendency to lump all non-whites into the same supposedly inferior group is itself racist. And this book is certainly guilty of doing that. Don't get me wrong: I have no doubts that Bannerman had benign intentions when writing this book, but I am unconvinced that her opinion of the Indian race was much higher than the opinion many American whites held of black people around the same time. And her portrayal of nonwhites as primitive cretins shows what this opinion was. If you disagree with me, vote my review unhelpful. But before you do, I recommend reading a few history books. You'll probably learn a thing or two.
Rating:
Summary: For ALL Children Of Any Race
Review: This book has been a favorite of mine for over 58 years. The story is what litle children can get into and recall on their own. I rate it with the Three Bears or the Three Litle Pigs. Kids love it & so do I. Race has nothing to do with it. Kids don't see that they are different, they only see another kid, unless they are taught to discriminate by adults.
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