The Libri GmbH The Tortoise and the Birds: A West African Folk Tale

Some lessons can only be learned the hard way.
Ijapa the tortoise is the cleverest creature in the forest. Everyone knows it, and so does he. When word reaches him that the people of the Sky Kingdom are hosting the most magnificent feast anyone has ever heard of, mountains of sweet yams, roasted plantains, and fruits that glow like the sun. Ijapa knows one thing with absolute certainty.
He has to be there.
There is just one problem. He has no wings.
But a small problem like that has never stopped Ijapa before. With a wide smile, a smooth tongue, and a plan that only a tortoise of his genius could devise, he talks the birds of the forest into lending him their feathers. One from each, and fashions himself a pair of wings good enough to carry him all the way to the sky.
Then, just before they take flight, he gives himself a new name, All-of-You.
What follows is a feast, a trick, a betrayal, and a fall that changes Ijapa's appearance forever, and explains something children across West Africa have wondered about for thousands of years.
Why does the tortoise carry a cracked and bumpy shell?
A story about greed, cleverness, and the consequences that always catch up with us in the end.
Rooted in the Yoruba oral tradition of West Africa and told for generations by parents, grandparents and elders across Nigeria and beyond, The Tortoise and the Birds is one of the most beloved folk tales on the continent. Ijapa the trickster tortoise is a figure every child from Lagos to London will recognise. Cunning enough to outsmart anyone, and foolish enough to outsmart himself.
These retelling honours the spirit of the original while bringing it to life for a new generation, with language crafted to be read aloud and illustrations that place every scene inside the vivid, golden world of West African storytelling.
Inside this book
A full retelling of the classic Yoruba folk tale, written for children aged 4 to 10. Cinematic full-colour illustrations on every page. A moral lesson rooted in the original oral tradition. A cultural note on the story's Yoruba heritage and the tradition of moonlight storytelling in West Africa.
For every child who deserves to know where they come from.
Moonlight Stories: The Tortoise and the Birds is Book 1 in the Moonlight Stories series - 54 folk tales drawn from every corner of the African continent, retelling the stories that shaped generations and keeping them alive for the children growing up in a world far from home.
The stories were never lost. They were waiting to be written down.
Reading age: 4 to 10 years
Format: Full colour illustrated picture book
Series: Moonlight Stories, Book 1 of 54