Helen Bannerman is an author of her own time, of historical interest primarily due to the controversy which continues to swirl around her most famous creation, The Story of Little Black Sambo (1899). Preceding Beatrix Potter by two years, she created a publishing phenomenon with her little book, of the same size as the ones Potter would make famous. The story is set in some indeterminate place, at times resembling Africa, at others imperial India. While the plot is harmless enough, the characterization of the African/Indians continues to inspire controversy. The characters are all named with an emphasis on their non-Caucasian origins--Black Quasha, Black Bobtail--and their given names are equally offensive to the cosmopolitan ear. Black Mumbo and Black Jumbo, Sambo's parents, have names chosen for their alliterative qualities rather than any dignified values. The fact that their names together connote voodoo or confusion, rather than some other...