The book is the second in a series, it is an African Folk tale that is set in a village about a character Mr. Pirkl (a tortoise) who believes he is the smartest creature alive. He tries to outsmart everyone by devising schemes to make them part with their priced possessions but, these other people also think they are smart but at the end they are outsmarted by this shelled dubiously smart creature. Mr. Pirkl grew up very poor. His mother died when he was little, and he almost did not make it himself. He had to fend for himself and did what he had to do to survive the harsh reality called life. Many of the things he did were born out of survival, so it became all he knew. Mr. Pirkl is not a bad creature; he is actually very good and has done good things, but he is just not able to get away from trying to outsmart everyone he meets.