AFRICAN-AMERICAN FOLK TALES FOR YOUNG READERS ...

AFRICAN-AMERICAN FOLK TALES FOR YOUNG READERS collected and edited by Richard & Judy Dockrey Young (August House: $9.95; 176 pp., illustrated, paperback original). The editors trace the origins of these stories from sub-Saharan Africa to their emergence in the United States, offering Afro- Americans a link to ancestral cultures, distant in both miles and years. But readers of every ethnicity will enjoy these charming tales of clever children, evil monsters, tricksters and small animals outwitting more powerful foes.