Showing results by narrator "Rob Cleveland" in All Categories

Many years ago, the proudest animal in the jungle was not the peacock. The proudest animal was the tiger. In this folktale from Vietnam, we see how Tiger's pride leads him to covet wisdom and, with the help of a wise farmer, earn his stripes. Illustrated by Baird Hoffmire.

When you think of Aesop's Fables, you probably think of "The Tortoise and the Hare" or "Country Mouse and City Mouse". In this collection, Rob Cleveland brings you three of Aesop's lesser-known but equally powerful fables. You will learn why bats fly at night, why you should pick your friends carefully, and why even a tiny ant could be your guardian angel.

A big bully lion is no match for the Clever Monkey in this retelling of a classic story from West Africa

A big bully lion is no match for the Clever Monkey in this retelling of a classic story from West Africa

Long ago, there were many suns in the sky and the world was miserably hot. The people asked the best archer in the land to shoot down many of the suns, leaving one in the sky. The remaining sun was afraid of the archer and hid behind a mountain, leaving the world cold and dark. Soon the people wanted the sun to come back, but it would take curiousity to lure the sun out from hiding.

Three brothers embark on separate journeys to fulfill their father's dying wish. In their journeys, they go to distant lands, find curious treasures, and learn the true meaning of giving. Illustrated by Baird Hoffmire.

In this story, a poor boy's dream of having a drum takes him on an unlikely path. He meets several people who guide him along the way. In time, he learns to make his own magic in this world. Illustrated by Tom Wrenn.

In the 1950s, at the age of 14, Little Freddie King hopped a southbound freight train in McComb, Mississippi, fleeing the life of a sharecropper’s son in what was then the "worst part of the most intransigent state" in Jim Crow-era Dixie. Landing in New Orleans, he taught himself to play blues guitar, then found work performing at the city’s corner nightclubs, including one nicknamed the Bucket of Blood for its nightly eruptions of violence. Dodging bullets and drinking with abandon, he became a fixture in the subterranean blues scene.

Executive Order 9981, issued by President Harry Truman on July 26, 1948, desegregated all branches of the United States military by decree. EO 9981 is often portrayed as a heroic and unexpected move by Truman. But in reality, Truman's history-making order was the culmination of more than 150 years of legal, political, and moral struggle.

In this story, a farmer and his wife match wits with a large, mean-spirited ogre. If they can't outwit him, they will end up with no crops of their own to eat or sell. This whimsically drawn story, illustrated by A. B. Hoffmire, is based on an old Swedish folktale.

Philadelphia's South Street is a world of contradiction. The hardscrabble neighborhood is filled with prostitutes and gangsters; Working stiffs mingle with winos at Lightnin' Ed's bar. But the streetwalkers are nearing retirement, the gangsters are unemployed, and a community is thriving in and around a place written off by officials and politicians as blighted. Black poet Adlai Stevenson Brown makes his way to South Street in search of authenticity in the form of a neighborhood to save.