Abiyoyo: Based on a South African Lullaby and Folk Story

Synopsis
This is a story, "adapted from a South African folktale, . . . of a boy who irritates everyone with his ukelele playing and of his father, who alienates the town by making objects disappear. . . . After the two are ostracized,they rescue the townspeople by exercising their talents on a marauding giant named Abiyoyo, making him dance till he drops and then disappears. Thereafterthe outcasts are lauded as heroes by a singing, celebratory parade." (Bull Cent Child Books) "Kindergarten to grade three." (SLJ)

Annotation
"A boy and his father are banished because the father, a magician, has a habit of making things vanish. But when the monster Abiyoyo appears . . . the boy plays a song on his ukelele to make the monster dance; then the father makes Abiyoyo disappear, and all is forgiven. The charm of this . . . lies in Seeger's wry understatement coupled with Hays' outstanding illustrations . . . The song, with music, is included."--Kirkus Reviews.

Description from The Reader's Catalog
A little boy and his father make a dreaded giant disappear

From the Publisher
Once there was a little boy who played the ukelele. Wherever he'd go he'd play, Clink, clunk, clonk. His father was a magician. Wherever he'd go, he'd make things disappear, Zoop! Zoop! Soon the townspeople grew tired of the boy's noise and his father's tricks, and banished both of them to the edge of town.

There they lived, until one day the terrible giant Abiyoyo appeared. He was as tall as a tree, and it was said that he could eat people up. Everyone was terrified, except the boy and his father, and they came up with a plan to save the town....

Pete Seeger's storysong, made up for his own children, finds its perfect match in Michael Hays's masterful paintings. As a special bonus, this edition includes a CD of Pete performing two different versions of "Abiyoyo." You'll love to follow and sing along as you listen to Pete tell this richly vivid and exciting story.

From the Critics
From Publishers Weekly  
Folk singer Pete Seeger's adaptation of the South African folktale Abiyoyo, first recorded in 1956, now comes with a sing-along CD (see Children's Audio, Sept. 10) in honor of the book's 15th anniversary. Michael Hays's artwork depicts the global villagers who drive a magician and his ukulele-strumming son to the edge of town only to invite them back when they make Abiyoyo the giant disappear. Seeger partners with Paul DuBois Jacobs to profile the same town 30 years later in Abiyoyo Returns, also illus. by Hays. Here, the father-son team is drafted to bring back Abiyoyo; they believe the giant alone can help them in their efforts to build a dam and save their town. (Oct.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
 
From Marilyn Courtot - Children's Literature  
Abiyoyo is a terrible giant who threatens to eat livestock and people in one gulp. A boy with his ukulele sings to him. He gets the giant dancing and spinning so fast he falls down. Then the boy's magician father uses his magic wand to dispatch the monster. The illustrations depict a town populated with a multicultural melange of people and Abiyoyo is cast as an abstraction of everyone's fears. Reissue of 1986 book. 1994, (orig.
 
From Cynthia Samuels - The New York Times Book Review  
Told in the familiar Seeger style, with brief musical phrases of the one-word song incorporated in the text and printed complete at the end, and with illustrations full of light and color, this rendering of a South African tale is a pleasure. The giant is imposing but not too scary for the youngest listener leaning over the book while a parent tells the story.
 
From Andrew J. Pierre - Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books  
The story has a couple of weak spots: the boy's music and the man's tricks don't seem comparably problematic; there's no preparatory buildup for the giant, who appears artificially in the middle of the story; and there's no reason given for why the boy has to make him lie down so the father's magic will work--it had previously worked on objects and people not lying down. The paintings, on the other hand, make a consistently handsome extension of the story. The colors are rich, the light and dark contrasts playful, the giant suggestively machine-like in conception. The cast of townspeople is self-conscious in ethnic mix, with global representatives communing over card games or tea, but in general, the illustration strengthens the story significantly.