Monday, August 13, 2012

What’s Cooking, Jamela? – Niki Daly


Illustrated by the author
2001, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
28 pages
HC $16.00

I’ve read many of Niki Daly’s books, but it wasn’t until this one that I realized he was a HE.  He lives in South Africa, where this story is set.

Endpapers:  Yellow with brush-stroked chikens running forward and backward.
Title Page:  Two-page spread of a city street, with Jamela and her mom walking happily.  Nice.
SETTING:  Contemporary South Africa in the days approaching Christmas.
1st sentence/s:  “Gogo and Mama were maiking plans for Christmas.”
OSS:  Jamela raises a chicken that is to be the main part of Christmas dinner, but when it becomes a pet she goes to dire straits to make sure that “Christmas” does NOT become Christmas dinner.
Includes a GLOSSARY.
Illustrations:  Well….perhaps ink and colored pencil?  They’re lovely, showing South African life , I’m particularly fond of the fabrics of rich African cloths.

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