Africa
Bright pictures, simple text.
Highly recommended.
“This is your home now,” everyone tells Sieta, but Sieta can’t help feeling sad when she thinks back to her previous home over the mountains, before her mother and father died of illness(AIDS) and she came to live with Aunty… that is, until she meets the baby elephant Satara.
Lila and the Secret of Rain – David Conway
For months the sun has burned down on the Kenyan village. It is too hot to gather firewood, to weed the garden, to milk the cow. Without rain the well will run dry and the crops fail. When Lila’s grandfather whispers to her the secret of rain, she set out to talk to the sky from the tallest mountain. She tells the sky the saddest thing she knows, the rain pours and she saves the village. Beautiful illustrations. Highly recommended.
Can You Hear the Sea? – Judy Cumberbatch
When Sarah’s grandfather goes off for a few days he leaves her with a gift of a shell, which he says she can hear the sea in. Every day he is away, Sarah listens and listens, but all she hears are the regular sounds of her life with her grandmother in the small village in which they live. Bright, bold pictures.
Jamela is bored during the school holidays, her aunt offers her a job in her hair saloon where she meets Afro-Idols celebrity, Miss Bambi Chaka Chaka having her hair set before the show. Whilst Miss Chaka Chaka dozes as Aunty Beauty designs her starry hairdo a fly buzzes and a hilarious result unfolds. Jamela saves the day. A bouncy, contemporary book with lively illustrations. Recommended.
Folk -Tale.
In the days before the Big Rains many of the animals looked very different. This story tells how Enormous Elephant’s trunk was stretched.
The children enjoyed this one.
An African animal tale; on the grassy African Plain, Handsome Hog had a beautiful smooth coat and an extremely elegant tail, he was exceptionally vain. The tale unfolds as to how Handsome Hog lost his looks and became a Warthog. An easily understood moral. Text is easy to follow and pictures are bright. Recommended
In the cleft of a rock, on the crest of a hill grows a tree that belongs to no-one and everyone. A baby girl is found swinging in the branches of the tree and she is adopted and loved by the whole village. However Tiranamba never speaks until one day when the tree is threatened. Poignant ending, beautiful illustrations. Highly recommended.
Five stories of mystery and enchantment of the Maasai people, illustrated by watercolours. Detailed stories.
Elephant Crossing – Toshi Yoshida
Eleven elephants gather to form a herd. Informative about herd life.
Probably not our favourite
Non-Fiction
Living book text outstanding photography.
