This post is mostly in answer to Sara’s post at The Learning Umbrella. She’d posted about two picture books that are good for a unit study on Africa, and I chimed in and wound up offering to share the titles of the books that JediBoy’s Pappy has brought him from his trips to South Africa. The comment grew too long and turned into a full-fledged post!
When I went upstairs to gather the books, I had a head-smacking moment for the number of books we enjoy about Africa that were bought right here in the States. I’ll start with those…
Abiyoyo - a “storysong” available in picture book form by Pete Seeger, based on a traditional South African lullaby and folk story
My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken, and Me - by Maya Angelou, illustrated with photographs and told from the perspective of a young South African girl
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears - a West African folktale retold by Verna Aardema
How Giraffe Got Such a Long Neck… and Why Rhino is So Grumpy - an East African tale retold by Michael Rosen and with eye-popping illustrations by John Clementson - this is one of JediBoy’s all-time favorite books!
Water Hole: Around the clock with the animals of the grasslands - a gorgeous book of photographs in the DK line - when my dad made his first trip to South Africa, we read this book almost every day and I would tell JediBoy what time of the day it was in South Africa, and we’d turn to that section of the book to see what animals would be out and about at that time
Here are the books brought to us from South Africa:
When Hippo Was Hairy and
When Lion Could Fly are two big books that weave together short stories (in the vein of “Just So Stories”) with factual information about the animals, plants, and settings found in the stories
Fairy Tales from Africa: Jackal and
Fairy Tales from Africa: Lion and Baboon are hardback books that each have two old fairy tales - JediBoy likes that at the end of each story there is a page with about 6 small drawings with the heading “Can you tell the story in your own words?” It’s a great way to recall the story immediately after hearing it.
Hamlet and Kimberley is actually the second in a series of stories about a pig named Hamlet - this is a long book (we have to give it a similar chunk of time as we would for reading a Magic Tree House book) but fun
Phepa and Itumelang is another long hardback like the Hamlet book, but for whatever reason JediBoy really prefers this one, which tells the story of two young elephants and the adventures they meet as their herd moves across the veld.
I am Simon by Matrie Preller is a great picture book with a funny story about what happens to young Simon when the animals he thinks he knows start acting crazy (aren’t all four year olds suckers for a book about anyone who is acting crazy?)
and last but not least is Madiba Magic, which is a beautiful large hardcover that contains Nelson Mandela’s 32 favorite stories for children from many different African countries. We haven’t read all the stories in this book yet but I pull it out when I need a treat.
I’ll end the post here because JediBoy is asking me to come read to him from the pile of books we bought at the thrift store today, but I did want to make special mention of Egypt… it’s often mentioned or studied as separate from “Africa,” (not sure why that is) but if you’re interested in those resources too, I’ll be glad to share them. JediBoy went through an incredible Egyptian obsession from around age 3 to the time he turned 4. (Ah yes, the golden age of ThothBoy!)
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