Though I have not finished many adult books lately, I am enjoying the children's books that Bonnie and Laura have been bringing home. Yesterday, I found a very colorful book with a story told in verse called On a Road in Africa by Kim Doner by my pillow. I am always pleased to find a book about Africa. Doner's book tells about the work day of an animal rescue worker in Nairobi, Kenya. The verse is witty and the artwork shows a diversity of people and wildlife, just as you would expect in Kenya. Kenya has had so many problems lately, with its contested election, the riots that followed, AIDS, and poverty. It is refreshing to see a lighter view with a hopeful message, offering a vision for the way life ought to be in that beautiful land. If enough children can believe in friendship, perhaps it can become true.
Even the end panels are well used in this attractive book. There you will find English words and Swahili translations. Get the book and read it right before you turn off the light. Lala salama.
Doner, Kim. On a Road in Africa. Tricycle Press, 2008. ISBN 9781582462301
Though I have not finished many adult books lately, I am enjoying the children's books that Bonnie and Laura have been bringing home. Yesterday, I found a very colorful book with a story told in verse called On a Road in 
1 comment:
Indeed, it is nice to see a hopeful book about Africa. Seems to me that one of the problems with the industrialized world's attitude toward Africa is tht we have a tendency to think we can solve them. Better to help Africans do that themselves.
That's part of the message behind my own recent novel The Violets of Usambra.
Cheers
Mary
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