When the local water hole dries up, Lion and Elephant set to work digging a new well. Rabbit, on the other hand, had no interest in doing the work - she just wants to enjoy the water. When that doesn't work out, the sly creature embarks on a series of trade-offs, exchanging "this for that," and eventually finding herself back at the water hole. Will her manipulations be rewarded?

I was mostly unimpressed by this retelling of a folktale from the Tonga people of Zambia and Zimbabwe, which Aardema notes was first published in her 1973 collection, Behind the Back of the Mountain. The narrative was fairly bland, and Victoria Chess's illustrations seemed somewhat precious, and vaguely out of place. I wavered between two and three stars, but eventually settled on three, given my fondness for Aardema's body of work. ( )

Rabbit tricks his way into the best bits of food, although he does get his share of tricks played on him, too. Since there is lots of negotiation (I'll give you this if you give me that) this story would be good for older readers practicing sequencing and identifying cause and effect. Cartoony illustrations.