{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.032025620496397116, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 4.482456140350878, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Book Review Section: Rebellion, Revolution, and Armed Force

Parents, for instance, both natural and adoptive, could rarely be trusted, dropping their kids off in the middle of the woods to make ends meet or marrying the obviously deranged the second time around. When I grew up I read that scholars had concluded that these tales were allegories for the maturation process and the child's need to confront evil. As a seven-year-old still hiding under the covers during thunder storms, I figured they were a way to keep me in my place, scared and humble. Dragons, Ogres, and Scarey Things: Two African Folk Tales, by Kathleen Arnott, fulfills the same objective. "The Dragon and the Drummer Boy" begins realistically enough, as village girls exclude a boy from their fishing trip. He follows them anyway and carves a magic drum out of a fallen tree trunk. The girls fall asleep in a hut which belongs to a hideous, child-eating dragon-boss who traps them inside saying, "There are many hungry animals in the forest. I will go and get them. Then we can eat you up." Several nightmare-inducing illustrations later, the boy and his magic drum rescue the girls. But after the villagers celebrate their safe return the tale ends on this off-putting note: