A unique, well-conceived take on using food to discover the essence of home.
A child rethinks her definition of home in Jalloh’s second picture book.
Elementary-schooler Mariama loves living in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where she can get banana akara ice cream and play football at the beach with her friends. When her parents announce that the family will be taking a trip back to her father’s home village of Kabala, Mariama can’t hide her disappointment. “But I don’t want another home,” she says to herself, “my home is here in Freetown with all my friends.” In Kabala, she is welcomed warmly by her extended family, but she doesn’t start to feel comfortable until her uncle takes her to meet his neighbor Pa Bah who lets her try thiakry, a dessert made from couscous. Mariama enjoys this experience but still misses home. It isn’t until Mariama celebrates the Kabala Festival and Pa Bah creates a thiakry dish with a twist that she learns to love both of her homes equally. Jalloh’s follow-up to The Biggest Little Brother (2017) is a thoughtful and visually dynamic exploration of the different ways we experience “home.” The author highlights a rarely studied country in American children’s literature and doesn’t shy from confronting the complexity of Mariama’s homesickness. Ӧzcan’s illustrations of the cities and countryside of Sierra Leone are vivid; they bring the nation’s culture to life with well-placed embellishments, such as the stars around Mariama’s spoon as she declares her love for banana thiakry.
A unique, well-conceived take on using food to discover the essence of home.Pub Date: June 17, 2023
ISBN: 979-8988009009
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Readers Inspired
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions.
Ellis, known for her illustrations for Colin Meloy’s Wildwood series, here riffs on the concept of “home.”
Shifting among homes mundane and speculative, contemporary and not, Ellis begins and ends with views of her own home and a peek into her studio. She highlights palaces and mansions, but she also takes readers to animal homes and a certain famously folkloric shoe (whose iconic Old Woman manages a passel of multiethnic kids absorbed in daring games). One spread showcases “some folks” who “live on the road”; a band unloads its tour bus in front of a theater marquee. Ellis’ compelling ink and gouache paintings, in a palette of blue-grays, sepia and brick red, depict scenes ranging from mythical, underwater Atlantis to a distant moonscape. Another spread, depicting a garden and large building under connected, transparent domes, invites readers to wonder: “Who in the world lives here? / And why?” (Earth is seen as a distant blue marble.) Some of Ellis’ chosen depictions, oddly juxtaposed and stripped of any historical or cultural context due to the stylized design and spare text, become stereotypical. “Some homes are boats. / Some homes are wigwams.” A sailing ship’s crew seems poised to land near a trio of men clad in breechcloths—otherwise unidentified and unremarked upon.
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6529-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
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