The Story of Little Black Sambo is a childrens' book by Helen Bannerman, a Scot living in India, first published in 1899. The little boy who had to sacrifice his new red coat and his new blue trousers and his new purple shoes— which the tiger wears on his ears— but outwits the predators in his world, to return safely home and eat 169 pancakes for his supper, was a children's favorite for half a century before it became controversial. The story takes place in a fairy tale India, and the tigers racing around the tree are turned into ghee, rendered as "butter."

Although loved by many, the book has a controversial history. Many consider the work to contain racist caricatures and stereotypes, and the word "sambo", partly as a result of the book, has a long history as a racial slur. The original illustrations portray Sambo in the manner of a golliwog. It has been banned in some libraries.

In 1996 noted illustrator Fred Marcellino observed that the story itself contained no racist overtones and produced a re-illustrated version, The Story of Little Babaji, which changes the characters' names but otherwise leaves the text unmodified. This version was a best-seller.

Julius Lester, in his Sam and the Tigers, also published in 1996, recast "Sam" as a hero of the mythical Sam-sam-sa-mara, where all the characters were named "Sam."

A modern printing, with the original title, in 2003, substituted more racially sensitive illustrations by Christopher Bing, in which, for example, Sambo is no longer quite so inky black. It was chosen for the Kirkus 2003 Editor's Choice list. However some critics were still unsatisfied. Dr Alvin F. Poussaint , then head of African studies at Harvard University, said of the 2003 publication:

“I don’t see how I can get past the title and what it means. It would be like … trying to do `Little Black Darky’ and saying, `As long as I fix up the character so he doesn’t look like a darky on the plantation, it’s OK'.”

See also

• List of banned books
• A Zambo is a person with Black and Amerindian ancestry.

External links

• Review in the Boston Globe
• Helen Bannerman on the Train to Kodaikanal