A beautiful and long-overdue picture-book homage to the importance of ancestors in Afro-Caribbean cultures.
A magic shell helps a Black Caribbean immigrant child connect with her ancestors.
Pigeon Pea, a young girl with medium-brown skin and an Afro, watches her parents and aunts (cued as a lesbian couple) preparing roti and callaloo (Caribbean culinary staples) and asks big questions: Who were their ancestors, and what would they say if they were still with them? Aunty bestows her with a magical cowrie shell that “carries the story of our people across sea and distant lands.” The shell’s magic transports Pigeon Pea through time and space, first to Tobago, where she meets her African foremothers and Kalinago forebears and participates in their community rituals, and then to West Africa, where she learns the songs and dances of her ancestral kinfolk, meets the “spirit guides” of her family, and is counseled by Yemoja, the mother of all Orishas, who assures her that “we are always rooting for you! We are with you wherever you are.” Pigeon Pea returns from her journey eager to tell her contemporary family about her enlightening adventure. The final illustration is a perfect ending: Pigeon Pea’s happy family enjoys a meal surrounded by the smiling spirits of their ancestors. Familial love and the joy of self-discovery are affirmed in Christmas’ uplifting narrative. The questionable choice of rhyming text and a lack of perspective in Mungaray’s colorful animation-esque art don’t spoil this special and important story. All characters are Black or Indigenous.
A beautiful and long-overdue picture-book homage to the importance of ancestors in Afro-Caribbean cultures. (glossary) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-9991562-4-4
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Flamingo Rampant
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre.
Ice princess Lina must navigate family and school in this early chapter read.
The family picnic is today. This is not a typical gathering, since Lina’s maternal relatives are a royal family of Windtamers who have power over the weather and live in castles floating on clouds. Lina herself is mixed race, with black hair and a tan complexion like her Asian-presenting mother’s; her Groundling father appears to be a white human. While making a grand entrance at the castle of her grandfather, the North Wind, she fails to successfully ride a gust of wind and crashes in front of her entire family. This prompts her stern grandfather to ask that Lina move in with him so he can teach her to control her powers. Desperate to avoid this, Lina and her friend Claudia, who is black, get Lina accepted at the Hilltop Science and Arts Academy. Lina’s parents allow her to go as long as she does lessons with grandpa on Saturdays. However, fitting in at a Groundling school is rough, especially when your powers start freak winter storms! With the story unfurling in diary format, bright-pink–highlighted grayscale illustrations help move the plot along. There are slight gaps in the storytelling and the pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lina is full of spunk and promotes self-acceptance.
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-35393-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
A gentle adventure that sets the stage for future quests.
A lonely prince gains a friend for a quest to find a missing jewel.
Prince Lucas of Wrenly has everything a boy could possibly want—except a friend. His father has forbidden him to play with the village children for reasons of propriety. Adventure-seeking Lucas acquires peasant clothes to masquerade as a commoner and make friends, but he is caught out. His mother, the queen, persuades the king to allow him one friend: Clara, the daughter of her personal dressmaker. When the queen’s prized emerald pendant goes missing, Lucas and Clara set off to find it. They follow the jewel as it changes hands, interviewing each temporary owner. Their adventure cleverly introduces the series’ world and peoples, taking the children to the fairy island of Primlox, the trolls’ home of Burth, the wizard island of Hobsgrove and finally Mermaid’s Cove. By befriending the mermaids, Lucas and Clara finally recover the jewel. In thanks, the king gives Clara a horse of her own so that she may ride with Lucas on their future adventures. The third-person narration is generally unobtrusive, allowing the characters to take center stage. The charming, medieval-flavored illustrations set the fairy-tale scene and take up enough page space that new and reluctant readers won’t be overwhelmed by text.
A gentle adventure that sets the stage for future quests. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-9691-0
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2014
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