PICTURE BOOK - Desmond and the Very Mean Word by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Douglas Carlton Abrams

Illustrated by A. G Ford

2013, Candlewick Press

HC $15.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.13

My rating: 4.5

Endpapers:  Musty peach

Illustrations: Gorgeous, full-paged; big and real.  Love 'em.

1^st line/s:  "Desmond was very proud of his new bicycle.  He was the only child in the whole township who had one, and he couldn't wait to show it to Father Trevor."

My comments: This is a visually inspriring story of an incident in Desmond Tutu's youth.  It is a story of forgiveness - how very difficult it is to do, but how rewqrding it can also be.

Goodreads:  Based on a true story from Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s childhood in South Africa, Desmond and the Very Mean Word reveals the power of words and the secret of forgiveness.    
     When Desmond takes his new bicycle out for a ride through his neighborhood, his pride and joy turn to hurt and anger when a group of boys shout a very mean word at him. He first responds by shouting an insult, but soon discovers that fighting back with mean words doesn’t make him feel any better. With the help of kindly Father Trevor, Desmond comes to understand his conflicted feelings and see that all people deserve compassion, whether or not they say they are sorry. Brought to vivid life in A. G. Ford’s energetic illustrations, this heartfelt, relatable story conveys timeless wisdom about how to handle bullying and angry feelings, while seeing the good in everyone.

25. The White Giraffe - Lauren St. John

audio read by Adjoa Ankoh
4 unabridged cds (4:47)
2006/ 2007 Random House audio
180 pgs.
Goodreads rating: 3.97
My rating: 2/It was okay
For: kids
Genre: Magical realism
Setting: contemporary South Africa

My comments:   I was hoping to read this aloud to my class, but it starts a little too brutally for my 4th graders (within the first few pages a raging house fire kills the protagonist's parents).  Pretty harsh.  Then, when Martine's whisked off to south Africa to live with the grandmother she never knew existed (?? - give me a break), that grandmother treats her quite harshly.  And later we're expected to believe that this woman loves this young girl?  Martine is really quite sneaky and is given free reign of the jungle?  Then, to top it all off, "magical reality" raises its eerie head, making the white giraffe - and its peculiar relationship with Martine - magical.  Just didn't do it for me, and won't for a lot of kids, but probably some will just love it.  I'll have it available during my Africa unit, but won't be reading it aloud.

Goodreads summary:  When Martine’s home in England burns down, killing her parents, she must go to South Africa to live on a wildlife game preserve, called Sawubona, with the grandmother she didn’t know she had. Almost as soon as she arrives, Martine hears stories about a white giraffe living in the preserve. But her grandmother and others working at Sawubona insist that the giraffe is just a myth. Martine is not so sure, until one stormy night when she looks out her window and locks eyes with Jemmy, a young silvery-white giraffe. Why is everyone keeping Jemmy’s existence a secret? Does it have anything to do with the rash of poaching going on at Sawubona? Martine needs all of the courage and smarts she has, not to mention a little African magic, to find out. First-time children’s author Lauren St. John brings us deep into the African world, where myths become reality and a young girl with a healing gift has the power to save her home and her one true friend.

Nelson Mandela - Kadir Nelson

Illustrated by the author

2013, Katherine Tegen Books, Harper Collins

HC $17.99 Carlisle's Bosler Library

40 pages

Goodreads rating: 4.20

My rating: 4/ (the illustrations are a definite 5)

Endpapers: deep cranberry

Title Page: No illustration, bold information on dark brown/tribal design background

Illustrations: Glorious!

2-page information and photo at the end of the book

Note:  I wish there had been a glossary/pronunciation guide, there were enough words to warrant one, perhaps this would be a good thing for my students to create after reading the book...

1^st line: " Rolihahla played barefooted/on the grassy hills of Qunu."

Goodreads:  One day when Nelson Mandela was nine years old, his father died and he was sent from his village to a school far away from home, to another part of South Africa. In Johannesburg, the country's capital, Mandela saw fellow Africans who were poor and powerless. He decided then that he would work to protect them. When the government began to keep people apart based on the color of their skin, Mandela spoke out against the law and vowed to fight hard in order to make his country a place that belonged to all South Africans.

My comments on Goodreads:  Kadir Nelson's illustrations, as usual, are incredible.  The cover is amazing.  This is the story of Nelson Mandela's life, but it seems a little spotty, starting with his earliest years (which was new-to-me information and really interesting), then jumping ahead, flying through his jail years, jumping ahead again....  I read this aloud to my 6-year old granddaughter and will read it to my fourth graders, and there are places that I felt I had to fill in information, or do some extra explaining.  Otherwise, I really loved this book.

MOVIE - Searching for Sugarman

PG-13 (1:26)

Limited release 7/27/12

Viewed t Crossroads

RT Critic: No reviews  Audience: 92

Cag: Excellent film

Directed by Malik Bendjelloull

Actors: none-this is a documentary (other than its "star," Sixto Rodriguez

A synopsis from Fandango: In the late ‘60s, a musician was discovered in a Detroit bar by two celebrated Motown producers who were struck by his soulful melodies and prophetic lyrics. They recorded an album that they believed was going to secure his reputation as one of the greatest recording artists of his generation. In fact, the album bombed and the singer disappeared into obscurity amid rumors of a gruesome on-stage suicide. But a bootleg recording found its way into apartheid South Africa and, over the next two decades, it became a phenomenon (as big as The Beatles). Two South African fans then set out to find out what really happened to their hero. Their investigation led them to a story more extraordinary than any of the existing myths about the artist known as Rodriguez. This is a film about hope, inspiration and the resonating power of music.

My comments:  I loved going into this with no knowledge or expectations other than hearing people say they really enjoyed it.  It slowly works its way to a few surprises and is really well done; an interesting and satisfying documentary.

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.

1^st 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.

Goal! - Mina Javaherbin

Illustrated by A. G. Gord
Candlewick, 2010
$16.99
Rating: 3.5
Endpapers: Red

Five friends who love soccer (or "football" in South Africa) get a chance to play with a real regulation soccer ball, won by one of them. However, one has to stand guard on a shanty rooftop to watch for bullies who will cause trouble and steal the ball. And, unfortunately, in they ride on their bikes. But the wily friends hide the soccer ball, letting the bullies steal their old plastic ball, feigning tears. Then they go on to play again - because they love the game.

(And what will happen next time, and the time after that?)

A. G. Ford's illustrations are their usual: brilliant.

Over the Green Hills - Rachel Isadora

Greenwillow Books, 1992
32 pages
Rating: 3.5

Endpapers: Dark Brown

This story was written while apartheid was still in force in South Africa. The setting of this story is on the eastern coast of South Africa, and according to an author's note, in the Transkei, a South African government-assigned independent state.

Zolani and his mother spend the best part of the day walking to their grandmother's village, trading goods and being given gifts for Grandma Zindzi as well.l The mother carries a box, a pumpkin, and a live chicken on her head! Zolani brings his goat, who carries mussels and firewood.

This book gives a sense of living in this part of South Africa. I've got a feeling, however, that the area is a lot poorer than it appears.

Full-page illustrations are created in deep, rich watercolors. Very lovely, heartwarming and realistic.

Elsina's Clouds - Jeanette Winter

Frances Foster Bks, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004
O-O-P, found in the library
32 pages
Endpapers: Four squares coming out of each other, filled with colorful African designs

This book is about the "Basotho women of southern Africa." My research shows that Basotho is a part of South Africa, perhaps in and around the area of modern-day Lesotho. I'll have to look into this a little more.

Jeanette Winter shares the custom of the Basotho women painting their houses as messages to their ancestors to bring the rain. A nameless young girl paints the addition to her family abode that will house her soon-to-be-arriving baby sibling. She goes to bed at night and dreams about the rain coming to moisten her mother's crops.

This is the third time I've read that it's the WOMEN who plan, plant, care for, and sow the crops in many parts of Africa.

As always, I love Jeanette Winter's bordered, colorful, simple-yet-detailed illustrations. The story in this book, however, was a little too simple. I wanted more....more information....more about the symbolism of the painting, more about the paints themselves. Oh well. Can't have it all every time.

This would make a good companion book to Gugu's House by Catherine Stock, which is also about an African woman who paintis her house with decorations and waits until the rain washes it away so she can begin again.

MOVIE - Invictus

Wonderful movie - even if you don't have a clue about RUGBY
Released 12-11-09
PG-13 (I have no idea why)
2 hrs. 12 minutes
Wed. 3-24-10 at Crossroads, just me
RT: 76 cag: 86
Director: Clint Eastwood
Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon

What a totally engrossing, historically important movie. I have always admired Nelson Mandela, and this movie puts the viewer into his back pocket. After 27 years in prison he is released and becomes the president of South Africa, ending apartheid, at a time when there is extreme hate and distrust between blacks and whites. This movie gives some insight into his thinking, his forgiveness, his magnificent mind. The only thing it does not tell us much about is the relationship (or non-relationship) with his family. Morgan Freeman BECAME Mandela. Both men are wonderful and amazing.

Even though there is a great deal of rugby action, you don't have to understand rugby to understand what is going on. And, to tell the truth, I now have an idea about the game! It's similar to football, but the player's only protection seems to be tooth guards. Amazing in this day of helmets and shoulder/shin guards and safety, safety, safety.

Matt Damon plays the captain of South Africa's rugby team, whom Mandela enlists to help in his quest to unify the country. Hair dyed blonde, South African accent in tow, he nailed this part. You watch him slowly come to understand and admire Mandela. And you watch the country slowly start to come together a bit, whether it be the black and white presidential body guards or a young black boy sidling up closer and closer to a cop car with its radio tuned to the final world cup game, just outside the rugby stadium where it's being played.

Bravo, Clint Eastwood....this movie was beautifully put together. My only problem was a personal one - I couldn't understand some of the rich South African accents, which was really frustrating in a couple of places. I wanted to rewind, which was impossible, of course.

Wonderful movie.

And, hey...this is my 600th post. Pretty cool....