Source
University of Florida’s Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature
Baldwin Call #
Baldwin Call #15h2350
Description
Published only in England, this book was completed and released by Helen Bannerman’s daughter, Day, twenty years after her mother’s death. The book features a blonde, white girl protagonist who receives beautiful clothing for her birthday. Little White Squibba ventures into the jungle, where she encounters a succession of animals from Bannerman’s previous books: a tiger ( Little Black Sambo); a mugger ( Little Black Mingo); and a snake and an elephant that throws her over a precipice ( Little Black Quibba). Little White Squibba shows all of the animals the error of their child-harming ways, and she returns home with all of her new animal friends. The book concludes with Little White Squibba eating a pancake dinner, “because that was what most of the little black children had had after their adventures” (63).
In Sambo Sahib, Eliza Hay speculates that Helen Bannerman wrote this book as a parody of Little Black Sambo. Additionally, Hay proposes that Day may have published the book in an attempt to refute claims that her mother was racist (152).
Creator
Helen Bannerman
Contributor(s)
Helen Bannerman
Publisher
Chatto & Windus
Publication Date
1968
Format
64 pages; colored illustrations; 14 cm.
Language
English