A Nigerian Folktale

This Nigerian folktale, with colorful illustrations by an award-winning artist, conveys a timely environmental message about waste and greed.

The sky was once so close to the Earth that people pulled down parts of it to eat. They never had to grow crops or cook—whenever they were hungry, they could just reach up and take a piece of sky. It sometimes tasted like stew, sometimes like corn…and it was always delicious! But people became greedy and took more than they needed, throwing the leftovers away. The sky soon became angry and decided to teach the humans a lesson by moving far away, and it remains there to this day.