Twenty-one lively tales center Mbe, the tortoise trickster of Igbo storytelling, in a new title in African Folktales for the Young at Heart.

Mbe is clever, boastful, endlessly resourceful—and rarely as wise as he thinks he is. Across twenty-one tales, the tortoise cheats his way through a marathon, bargains with a mermaid, plots against a lion king, steals from a well, tangles with a python, vulture, eagle, crocodile, sheep and snail, and repeatedly discovers that every trick leaves a consequence. Drawing on the Igbo figure of Mbe and the moral logic of African folktales, Chiamaka Nwaobia combines humor, proverbs, supernatural encounters and animal characters to introduce young readers to a living storytelling tradition. Adventures of Mbe the Tortoise is designed for independent reading, family sharing and classroom discussion about honesty, responsibility, patience, friendship and wisdom.