What This Book Actually Is
African Mythology A to Z by Patricia Ann Lynch is a reference work for young readers, published by Facts On File. It covers African folklore and mythology through an alphabetical structure, with entries running from A to Z. Each letter gets a short entry explaining a myth, deity, trickster figure, or cultural concept from across the continent. The book is aimed at roughly upper-elementary to middle-school reading level, which means the entries are intentionally brief and accessible rather than deeply academic. I bought a used copy around 2018 and had been looking for something my students could actually finish reading without glossing over every other page. Most mythology compendiums are either too scholarly or too dumbed down. This sits somewhere in between. It is not a substitute for serious research, but as a first introduction — especially for younger readers encountering African mythological traditions for the first time — it does what it sets out to do.
Getting Your Hands on African Mythology A To Z Patricia Ann Lynch
The book was published by Infobase Learning (formerly Facts On File). You will find it in both hardcover and paperback editions. Amazon and Better World Books list used copies fairly regularly, and the paperback tends to run somewhere between eight and twenty dollars depending on condition. The ISBN-10 is 0816050204 and the ISBN-13 is 978-0816050209. If you are buying for a library or classroom, order the hardcover. The paperback binding on mine held up for about two years of handling before the spine started separating at the fold points. Each alphabetical entry gets one or two pages. The entries cover deities, trickster figures, creation myths, cultural heroes, and certain mythological concepts or places. It pulls from a wide range of African traditions — West African, East African, Southern African, Central African — rather than focusing on any single region. That is both its strength and its weakness. You get breadth, but the coverage of any one tradition is necessarily shallow. The writing style is straightforward prose with occasional glossary-style definitions woven in. There are illustrations in most editions, though they tend to be simple line drawings rather than full-color plates. Some users find the illustrations helpful. Others find them distracting. My students generally didn't mind them either way.
What Works Well
The strongest feature is the alphabetical accessibility. If a student is looking for a specific figure — Anansi, for example — they can find it immediately without navigating a complex table of contents. The cross-references between entries are minimal but functional. I have seen students jump from one entry to another and build a rough map of how different traditions relate to each other, even if the book doesn't explicitly guide them to do that. The scope is genuinely pan-African. Many introductory books default heavily to West African Yoruba or Akan traditions. This one makes an effort to include material from Maasai, Zulu, Dogon, San, and other traditions. That matters because African mythology is not a monolith. Presenting it as such is one of the most common beginner mistakes, and Lynch avoids that trap at least partially by covering multiple regions.
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Where the Book Falls Short
The entries are short. Some are as brief as a paragraph. This means you get names and basic descriptions but rarely the deeper context — historical background, regional variations, scholarly debates about interpretation. A student who finishes this book and wants to go deeper will need additional resources. I typically pair it with more detailed works once they have built some familiarity with the subject matter. The source attribution is vague. Lynch draws on a range of published sources, but the citations are not always clear or easy to trace. For classroom use, this is acceptable at the introductory level, but it becomes a problem if a student needs to verify a specific claim for a research project. I had one student who tried to cite an entry about a specific Orishas tradition and ran into trouble because the book did not specify which regional variant it was describing. The workaround was simple: I had them track down the source listed in the bibliography and compare it against at least one other reference before including it in their paper. That process took about twenty minutes and taught them something useful about source verification in the process. There is also the issue of oversimplification. Complex mythological systems get reduced to a page or two. Trickster figures in particular tend to get flattened into "clever hero" descriptions without much attention to the moral ambiguity that makes them interesting. Anansi is not just a trickster who outsmarts people. The figure carries much more complicated cultural weight in Akan tradition, and reducing it to a simple cleverness narrative misses a significant portion of what makes the stories meaningful.
Practical Use Cases
I have used this book in three main contexts. First, as a browsing resource for students who are still exploring what interests them. Second, as a reference text alongside more detailed readings. Third, as a quick introduction for visitors or substitute teachers who need a reliable, age-appropriate overview without spending time planning materials. In all three cases it has been functional. If you are a teacher, I would recommend keeping a copy in the classroom reference section. It is not the kind of book students read cover to cover. It is the kind of book they pick up when they need a starting point. A good reference text does exactly that.
Who Should Read It
Students in grades five through eight who are new to African mythology will get value from this. College-level researchers should look elsewhere. Adults seeking a thorough introduction might prefer works by scholars like John S. Mbiti or Joseph Olumuyua, whose books provide the depth and source rigor that this volume lacks. But for what it is — an accessible, alphabetically organized introductory survey — it is a solid choice.
