MZEE HEKIMA AND THE BOYS

A crowing rooster and a wise elder teach some youngsters a lesson in this illustrated children’s book.

In a village called Jata in Kenya, a proud rooster named Kelele (the Swahili word for “noise”) rouses the residents with “ear-splitting” crowing each morning. The bird is owned by elderly Mzee Hekima, a widower who’s still mourning his late wife and finds Kelele’s presence a comfort. One morning, he discovers that rooster injured and bleeding—and he suspects it to be the work of “five unruly boys” who already regularly disturb his peace by knocking on his door and running away. Mzee confronts the group, and although the author’s invitation to readers to show empathy is unsubtle, it’s still resonant. Mzee, as a voice of authority, drives home the point by asking the boys to imagine the pain that they, or their own pets, would feel if they were on the receiving end of cruelty, and he says that losing his dear friend Kelele would hurt him “tremendously...because he is my companion.” (He also notes that although the rooster’s crowing may be annoying, it performs a vital function in the community.) The descriptive prose and colorful illustrations capture the diverse flavor of a setting that will be unfamiliar to many American readers. The book ends with facts about Kenya; a glossary of Swahili words, such as utu, which means “humanity or humaneness” in English; and an illustrated utu badge “for each one of you [readers] who strives to care or be kind to another.” However, there are a few distracting errors in the main text (flinged instead of flung; clobbed instead of clubbed).

A story with a clear-cut message about the importance of cultivating compassion.