The Story of Little Black Sambo, a children's book
by Helen Bannerman, a Scot who lived for 30 years in Madras in southern India,
was first published in London in 1899. (An American edition of the book was
illustrated by Florence White Williams.) In the tale, an Indian boy named Sambo
prevails over a group of hungry tigers. The little boy has to give his colourful
new clothes, shoes, and umbrella to four tigers so they will not eat him. Sambo
recovers the clothes when the jealous, conceited tigers chase each other around
a tree until they are reduced to a pool of delicious melted butter. The story
was a children's favourite for half a century, but then became controversial due
to the use of the word sambo, a racial slur in some countries.
— Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
