KDL Recommends

JE ATINUKE

Anna Hibiscus lives in amazing Africa with her mother, her father, her baby twin brothers, and lots and lots of her family. Join her as she splashes in the sea, prepares for a party, sells oranges, and hopes to see sweet, sweet snow!

J398.2096 GHANA DAL

In this version of “Little Red Riding Hood,” set in Ghana, a young girl fails to heed Granny’s warning about the dangers of talking to strangers.

E DALY

Jamela wants sparkly “princess shoes” to go with her new birthday dress, but Mama makes her buy practical school shoes instead.

E DIAKITE

While visiting her father’s family in Mali, a young girl loses a tooth, places it under a calabash, and receives a hen and a rooster from the African Tooth Fairy.

E DIOUF

When Bintou, a little girl living in West Africa, finally gets her wish for braids, she discovers that what she dreamed for has been hers all along.

J333.7209 JOH

A biography of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmentalist Wangari Maathai, a female scientist who made a stand in the face of opposition to women’s rights and her own Greenbelt Movement, an effort to restore Kenya’s ecosystem by planting millions of trees

E KESSLER

In the Ethiopian mountain village of Lalibela, famous for its churches and honey, a young girl determines to find a way to be a beekeeper despite being told that is something only men can do.

E KILAKA

Sokwe the Chimp has been fishing since early morning and comes home with a load of fish to sell at the market the next day. As he pulls up to the riverbank, he sees that his friends are having a party and he joins in the fun. But as he carries the fish up to stow them away, Dog catches sight of the mouth-watering catch. The next day Sokwe and his friends pile into his truck to take their goods to market. Dog tags along with them, with a devious plan to steal Sokwe’s fish. Will he succeed? This colorful cast of animals provides children with a rich and fascinating portrait of traditional African village life.

E MACLACHLAN

A mother relates the events of a peaceful day along the banks of Lake Tanganyika to her baby, wrapped up and ready for sleep.

PLACES SAFRICA J968.066 NAI

Presents an A to Z illustrated look at some of the people, places, items, and customs of South Africa.

J967.62 OEL

When I was a boy in Kisumu, Kenya, I only dreamed of becoming a doctor and helping the people in my village. It happened to me. Now I can give back to my people. It can happen for you. When it does, remember to give back to your people too.

E ONYEFULU

Deron Goes to Nusery School is a title in the First Experiences series, a vivid new series portraying young children’s very first experiences of nursery school, time with grandparents, and other events. The first time for anything can be daunting, and these books set out to familiarize children, through simple read-aloud words and beautiful photos, with what seems at first unfamiliar but will eventually become a routine part of everyday life. Set in and photographed in Ghana in West Africa, these beautiful books brilliantly capture these universal early childhood experiences from the relatively unusual and revealing perspective of a country in the developing world. In Deron Goes to Nusery School, Deron watches his mother make his new school clothes. The next day he goes with her to the school and meets his new teacher, who shows him around the school and introduces him to the other children. Playing, singing, writing, eating lunch, resting, and listening to a story are all part of Deron’s exciting first day, and at the end he can’t wait to go back tomorrow. Written and photographed by an award-winning author, this is a uniquely heart-warming book to share with all young children.

E RUMFORD

The children arrive on the first day of school and build a mud structure to be their classroom for the next nine months until the rainy season comes and washes it all away.

E STUVE-BODEEN

Although she enjoys her first day at school, Elizabeti misses her family and wonders if it wouldn’t be better to stay home.

JE BEAKE

After the death of her parents, young Sieta goes to live with her Aunty on the other side of the mountains, but she is sad and lonely until she meets a young elephant who has also lost his family.

JE MILWAY

Based on a true story, tells of how a poor Ghanaian boy buys a chicken through a community loan program, which eventually helps lift him, his mother, and his community out of poverty.

JE ROBINSON

A true story, told in Gervelie’s own words of how she and her father survived terrible hardships and the horrors of war to seek a new life. Her father became a wanted man and was forced into hiding. The family was torn apart forever. Gervalie and her father escaped the country and travelled to the UK to seek asylum. They are still unable to return home to the Republic of Congo.

J361.74 SHO

Tells how Ryan Hreljac, the young Canadian boy who at the age of six was determined to provide clean water for an African village, became pen pals with Akana Jimmy, a young orphan in Uganda, how Jimmy came to join Ryan’s family in Canada, and the continuing achievements of Ryan’s Well Foundation.

J921 MANDELA

A picture book of Mandela’s official biography.

J MICHAEL

In the southern African country of Malawi, after the AIDS-related deaths of both of his parents, a boy leaves his affluent life in the city to live in a rural village, sharing a one-roomed hut with his aunt, his cousins, and other orphans.

J PARK

When the Sudanese civil war reaches his village in 1985, eleven-year-old Salva becomes separated from his family and must walk with other Dinka tribe members through southern Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya in search of safe haven. Based on the life of Salva Dut, who, after emigrating to America in 1996, began a project to dig water wells in Sudan.