Books like The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales

The young woman lifted one foot in the air. Then the other. She flew clumsily at first, with the child now held tightly in her arms. Then she felt the magic, the African mystery. Say she rose just as free as a bird. As light as a feather.This cherished image of escape from slavery is one of the most famous in all of folklore. What about the rest of the book? I would almost recommend that you read it in reverse- it felt to me like the stories got steadily better near the end.The stories are divided into four groups. The first group is talking animal stories- a mix of trickster stories and Just-So stories. It was my least favorite part of the book. I am not predisposed to talking animals, and the heavy dialect* made it hard for me to catch the cadence of the story-telling.*The author calls it "dialect," although modern linguists might call it an older form of AAE.The second batch is fantastical stories that feel a lot like a classic Grimm's quest with magical objects tale. As with the talking animal tales (and the whole book), these are given added weight by the slavery subtext; the weak outwit the strong and escape is imperative.The third batch feature the Devil or supernatural haunts of one kind or another. I loved every one of these and could have used a dozen more. They are just my mix of creepiness, tricksterism, and fantasy.The fourth section is the most famous- folk tales that are explicitly about escape from slavery. The title story is the very last, and also the most powerful. In it, there are some people who can fly, but the overseers and slave owners are blind to this inner beauty. In the end, the slave owners are deceived by their own racism. This story is also available as a stand-alone picture book with full-color illustrations.