Intended for readers aged 8 to 12, as well as their parents and teachers, this anthology, produced for the Printemps des poètes, is made up of sixteen chapters, each organized in the same way: an illustration, an introduction, a traditional tale rewritten by Réjane Niogret and two to four poems.

The tales and poems presented in this book come from Africa, initially written in Fulani, Swahili, French, Wolof or English, and come mainly from the following countries: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mauritius, Mauritania, Mayotte, Reunion, Senegal, Chad, Tunisia, Zaire. The book opens with a text that introduces the anthology, presents it, and initiates a story that, in filigree, serves as a guiding thread. Here is the initial text: "River, Bush, Rain, Village, House, Palace, Forest: at our call, words appeared. From the north, the west, the east, the south, from the coasts and islands that border the continent, they answered the call. Joyful, serious, magical, they were in a hurry. Pranksters, they dove into the canary. The earthenware pot filled with water continued, as if nothing had happened, to sweat and refresh, drop by drop, the water of the household where it was installed, somewhere in a village, between sea and ocean, on the soil of the first men who populated the earth.

In a simple way, addressing the reader's imagination, it introduces a home where a family resides (importance of family ties) characterized by listening, mixing between generations (respect for ancestors), sharing, while reserving a place of choice, through interventions relevant
from magic in general, to the invisible. It is a text that reflects societies for which the journey of man begins in the hands of others and ends in the hands of others, and whose ethics are to build themselves between individual desire and custom, between the disorder of witchcraft and the order maintained by the alliances of man with man. Thus, each member of the community (including neighbors or visitors), seized by the magic of the canary that contains all the tales, all the poems of Africa, will in turn speak, designated by a particular object.