The Mean Hyena

Source: Sierra, Judy. The Mean Hyena: A Folktale from Malawi. New York: Lodestar Books, 1997.

Summary: Fisi, the hyena, decides to play a trick on Kamba the tortoise and sticks him in a tree. While he is stuck, Kamba offers to paint the coats of the savanna animals, giving the zebra stripes, the leopard spots, and decorating the coats of other animals. Finally, Fisi decides he wants a new coat, too. However, Kamba paints Fisi's coat with tree gum, which then makes Fisi's coat sticky and dirty.

Cultural origins: African/Malawi. The book contains an author's note giving some background on the tale and the storytellers and scholars who contributed to the book.

Audience: Kindergarten-3rd grade. This tale could appeal to a wide range of ages, but in particular, I have found that these kind of "origins" stories are fascinating to early elementary school children.

Adaptation notes:I would probably leave out the names given to the animals in order to avoid mispronouncing them. I would also work on exaggerating the hyena's laugh at the end to sound more like an actual hyena's bark/laughter.