Set in a Swahili village in Zanzibar, this story is about Bimwili, who is captured by the demon, Zimwi whilst searching for a shell on the beach. He imprisons her in his drum and forces her to sing from within the drum, to entertain the local villages in exchange for food. When they visit Bimwili's own village her voice is recognized and her father rescues her by filling the drum with sand, which of course fails to sing at the command of Zimwi. The demon defeated, returns to the sea. Verna Aardema is an American storyteller of African folktales who won the Caldecott Medal in 1976. She has also written "Bringing The Rain to Kapiti Plain" and "Oh,Kojo! How Could You". Susan Meddaugh has illustrated several picture books.

 

This book is part of a book series called Picturemacs Series .

There are 32 pages in this book. This is a picture book. A picture book uses pictures and text to tell the story. The number of words varies from zero ('wordless') to around 1k over 32 pages. Picture books are typically aimed at young readers (age 3-6) but can also be aimed at older children (7+). This book was published 1988 by Pan Macmillan .

Verna Aardema was born in New Era, Michigan, in 1911. A cedar swamp in the back of her house served as her inspiration and retreat as a young aspiring writer. She was inspired to write for children when she had to make up stories to get her baby daughter to eat. She wrote many African folktales because of her fascination with the infinitely diverse continent.