Africa Books

The Power of One

Bryce Courtenay

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 370 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Inspiring 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I just happened upon this book at the bookstore, one of the employees highly recommended it to me. It was magical; the writing was to me reminiscient of the works of Mark Twain. I am a history buff so the fact that it it takes place in South Africa during World War II was a plus to me. The only (slight) criticism I have is that it is a very long book (500+ pages) and I have a bit of ADD. This does not stop me from giving this book five stars.

Editorial Review:

"Unabashedly uplifting."
THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER
Set in a world torn apart, where man enslaves his fellow man and freedom remains elusive, THE POWER OF ONE is the moving story of one young man's search for the love that binds friends, the passion that binds lovers, and the realization that it takes only one to change the world. A weak and friendless boy growing up in South Africa during World War II, Peekay turns to two older men, one black and one white, to show him how to find the courage to dream, to succeed, to triumph over a world when all seems lost, and to inspire him to summon up the most irrersistible force of all: the Power of One.

Beatrice's Goat

Page McBrier

Amazon Price: $7.99 List Price: $7.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Aladdin Amazon Marketplace: 40 new & used starting at $3.86

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Subjects -> Children's Books -> Animals -> Farm Animals -> Nonfiction

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

great book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I used this book to explain mission work and Project Heifer to my Sunday School children. It is a really good book with an important message. The pictures are vivid and really great. Highly recommended.

Editorial Review:

More than anything, Beatrice longs to be a schoolgirl. But in her small African village, only children who can afford uniforms and books can go to school. Beatrice knows that with six children to care for, her family is much too poor.

But then Beatrice receives a wonderful gift from some people far away -- a goat! Fat and sleek as a ripe mango, Mugisa (which means "luck") gives milk that Beatrice can sell. With Mugisa's help, it looks as if Beatrice's dream may come true after all.

Page McBrier and Lori Lohstoeter beautifully recount this true story about how one child, given the right tools, is able to lift her family out of poverty. Thanks to Heifer Project International -- a charitable organization that donates livestock to poor communities around the world -- other families like Beatrice's will also have a chance to change their lives.

Cry, the Beloved Country (Bridge)

Alan Paton

List Price: $7.85 By: Longman Pub Group Amazon Marketplace: 11 new & used starting at $3.48

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 247 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

It's on my Top 10 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 20 people found this review helpful.

How much can a man love his country? How much can he love his son? His God? Can justice prevail when man cannot? What is forgiveness? Redemption? Grace? To consider all these elements in one novel is not possible. Or is it?

"Cry, the Beloved Country" is all these things and more. It is forgiveness writ large. It is agape love in the doing. It is the story of two fathers, each with a son. One son is the victim of apartheid and is lost. The other is also a victim of apartheid but of the other side. He seeks to find a way to make things better, to make things right. The lost one kills the seeking one. One is African, the other is Afrikaaner, and therein lies the difference and the ultimate. This difference, this ultimate, this absolute are what drove Alan Paton in the writing of South Africa's most famous, most searing novel of the separation of races in all ways.

Absalom Kumalo's life is limited in all ways because he is black South African. Arthur Jarvis is an engineer and has all the privileges of white South Africa, yet he is keen on social justice and works to bring it to pass. What irony then that the one without kills the one seeking to bring justice. However, it is this very irony that brings their fathers to friendship, to a bonding of black man and white man.

Umfundisi is the black priest (not Catholic) of a simple, poor church in a village located near the home of the rich landowner and farmer, James Jarvis, who really does not know his son until he is dead. It is the getting to know his son that he connects with the African, and the father becomes the son in the ways of love and forgiveness. The umfundisi is one of my favorite characters in all literature I have read because of his humility and reverence.

This novel, published in 1948, remains as one, even today, apropos to race relations, to their very real potentials and actualities. Mutual respect, sincerity, forgiveness, and grace all come to the fore in this most magnificent, lyrical novel.

It would be on my Top 10 list of books I would take if marooned on the proverbial deserted island.

Editorial Review:

"Cry the Beloved Country" is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its contemporaneity, unforgettable for character and incident, "Cry, the Beloved Country" is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.

Lions at Lunchtime (Stepping Stone Book Series)

Mary Pope Osborne

By: Demco Media Amazon Marketplace: 2 new & used starting at $15.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Lions are not very Sweet Before Lunchtime 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The book Lions at Lunchtime is a great book for little kids about the age of six, seven and eight. The book sent me into a magical land. I imagined that I was in the land with the characters. The book is about a boy and a girl who have a magical task to find out a riddle. They travel in the magic tree house that is owned by a librarian named Morgan. The author of this book, Mary Pope Osbornmade a series of Magic Tree House.

MY BOY LOVES READING IT 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

My 1st grader hates to put it down, he would rather read Magic Tree House books, than play video games. He even reads them to his class and explains the story for show and tell. In his kindergarten class the teacher would also let him read the Magic Tree House books out loud, not to give her a break, but to promote reading out loud. Great books!

Elizabeth's Review 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I'm seven years old. I like this book because Jack is my brother's name. Annie is the little sister and so am I. The book was cool because when they went to Africa they saw zebras and giraffes. The part when Annie found a bird and followed it in to a forest. That was boring. I recommend this book for kids and grownups. They teach you stuff about the books. I learned many things about any books of Jack and Annie Magic Tree House. I would have to say Jack and Annie are one of the best books I have read. Like the part when Annie got stuck in sticky mud. An elephant came by and squirted water and washed Annie. It felt like a hard shower. I wonder if the water was cold. The End.
--By Elizabeth

One Hen - How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference

Katie Smith Milway

Amazon Price: $12.89 List Price: $18.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Kids Can Press, Ltd. Amazon Marketplace: 33 new & used starting at $11.49

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Subjects -> Children's Books -> People & Places -> Careers

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Inspired by true events, One Hen tells the story of Kojo, a boy from Ghana who turns a small loan into a thriving farm and a livelihood for many. After his father died, Kojo had to quit school to help his mother collect firewood to sell at the market. When his mother receives a loan from some village families, she gives a little money to her son. With this tiny loan, Kojo buys a hen. A year later, Kojo has built up a flock of 25 hens. With his earnings Kojo is able to return to school. Soon Kojo's farm grows to become the largest in the region. Kojo's story is inspired by the life of Kwabena Darko, who as a boy started a tiny poultry farm just like Kojo's, which later grew to be the largest in Ghana, and one of the largest in west Africa. Kwabena also started a trust that gives out small loans to people who cannot get a loan from a bank. One Hen shows what happens when a little help makes a big difference. This help comes in the form of a microloan, a lending system for people in developing countries who have no collateral and no access to conventional banking. Microloans have begun to receive more media attention in recent years. In 2006 Muhammad Yunus, a Bangledeshi economist who pioneered microloan banking, won the Nobel Peace Prize.The final pages of One Hen explain the microloan system and include a list of relevant organizations for children to explore.

The Egypt Game

Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Amazon Price: $11.55 List Price: $16.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Atheneum Amazon Marketplace: 36 new & used starting at $9.59

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Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror -> Mysteries, Espionage, & Detectives

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 204 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The first time Melanie Ross meets April Hall, she's not sure they have anything in common. One look at April's upswept hair, false eyelashes, and ragged fox-fur collar is enough to convince Melanie that April won't have an easy time fitting in with the sixth graders at Wilson School.

But April has some surprises in store, like the fact that she enjoys reading and playing imagination games just as much as Melanie does. The two even discover that they both love anything to do with ancient Egypt! In a storage yard behind the A-Z Antiques and Curio Shop, Melanie and April start to play the Egypt Game.

Before long, there are six Egyptians instead of two. They meet to wear costumes, hold ceremonies, and work on their secret code. Everyone enjoys the game until strange things begin to happen. Has the Egypt Game gone too far?

With a touch of charm and a whole lot of imagination, Zilpha Keatley Snyder transforms an abandoned junkyard into an Egyptian court in this Newbery Honor-winning mystery.

Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain (Reading Rainbow Book)

Verna Aardema

Amazon Price: $7.99 List Price: $7.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Puffin Amazon Marketplace: 57 new & used starting at $1.76

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Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths -> African

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Incredible Response! 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

I bought this book after having it recommended while taking a graduate level children's literature class. I was not disappointed! I grabbed this book to read aloud if I had extra time while substitute teaching for a kindergarten class. I thought the children would be more attracted to the rhyme and pattern of the words so imagine my surprise when the book sparked a lengthy discussion between 5 year olds about drought, Africa, animals, and culture! It prompted questions that I didn't even know they were capable of asking and had them making connections to weather in our own backyard and stories they heard on the news. This book is a reading, social studies, and science lesson in one!

My Kids Love This Book! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

After hearing James Earl Jones read this book on Reading Rainbow, I knew I had to buy it. My two very young sons (ages 1 and 2) sat entranced the whole time. Of course that may have been because it was the voice of Darth Vader, but hey, it's a great book all on its own. My husband now reads this book to them at bedtime every night.

Editorial Review:

The story of how Ki-pat ingeniously brings rain to the arid Kapiti Plain. "Cumulative rhyming tale with the rhythm and repetition of The House That Jack Built . . . Illustrations are stylized, simple, and dramatic."--School Library Journal.

Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai (Frances Foster Books)

Claire A. Nivola

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) Amazon Marketplace: 44 new & used starting at $9.45

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Subjects -> Children's Books -> People & Places -> Biographies -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Wangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize and founder of the Green Belt Movement, grew up in the highlands of Kenya, where fig trees cloaked the hills, fish filled the streams, and the people tended their bountiful gardens. But over many years, as more and more land was cleared, Kenya was transformed. When Wangari returned home from college in America, she found the village gardens dry, the people malnourished, and the trees gone. How could she alone bring back the trees and restore the gardens and the people?

Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature, says: “Wangari Maathai’s epic story has never been told better—everyone who reads this book will want to plant a tree!”

With glowing watercolor illustrations and lyrical prose, Claire Nivola tells the remarkable story of one woman’s effort to change the fate of her land by teaching many to care for it. An author’s note provides further information about Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement. In keeping with the theme of the story, the book is printed on recycled paper.

The White Giraffe

Lauren St. John

Amazon Price: $6.99 List Price: $6.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Puffin Amazon Marketplace: 45 new & used starting at $2.97

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Subjects -> Children's Books -> Animals -> Mammals -> Fiction

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Beautiful but unsettling... 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I must agree with the reviewer who found the premise of this book disturbing. I think it's excellent that a white author engages a white heroine (and her western audience) with Africa. But the total effect here may not be worth the beauty and informative nature of this book.

I have no problem with a white girl going to live in Africa and being the center of an "African" narrative. But in the South African context, the notion that a foreign white person has a supernatural connection to nature is both absurd and tiresome (after centuries of Afrikaner farmers making the same argument to justify taking the land). The idea that the heroine has "control over all the animals" is also outdated at a time when our sense of domain over nature has done devastating damage to our environment.

Speaking of tired ideas, meet the major black characters in the novel. There is Tendai, the wise, noble, avuncular black "helper" on the heroine's quest. (I'm sure he'll be played by Morgan Freeman in the movie version.) We also meet Grace, who I'm sorry to say is very much an Aunt Jemima character. She is jovial, overweight, headscarfed and motherly, and she says things like "Look at you, chile, you just skin'n'bone." These characters are given a bit of depth, but like many things in the book it's not enough and feels unplanned.

I wouldn't discourage any child from reading this highly satisfying story. But any reading of it should be guided with a discussion of stereotypes and questions about our relationship to nature. Kids are smart; I wish the plot and characterization here had been just a bit smarter.

Editorial Review:

A thrilling adventure classic-inthe- making!

The night Martine Allen turns eleven years old is the night her life changes completely. Martine’s parents are killed in a fire, so she must leave her home to live on an African wildlife reserve with a grandmother she never even knew she had. When Martine arrives, she hears tales of a mythical animal living there—a white giraffe. They say no one has ever seen the animal, but it does leave behind footprints. Her grandmother insists that the white giraffe is just a legend, but then, one stormy night, Martine looks out her bedroom window straight into the eyes of the tall silvery animal. Could it be just Martine’s imagination, or is the white giraffe real? And if so, why is everyone keeping its existence a secret?

Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti (Caldecott Honor Books)

Gerald McDermott

Amazon Price: $17.50 List Price: $17.50 Usually ships in 2 to 4 weeks By: Topeka Bindery Amazon Marketplace: 1 new & used starting at $5.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Vibrant, vivid illustration and a wonderful tale 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

The Anansi stories have been handed down through generations of Ashanti culture. This book is a wonderful, vibrant and vivid story for children of all ages. Born in Ghana I left at aged 3, leaving much of the Ghanaian culture behind. At aged 30 I can still remember a song about Anansi the spider, the only remnants left of my native tongue. I was given the Anansi book as a child, it captivated me, I read it over and over again, and it provided a connection to my past. At 16, I spent hours crafting a cushion embroidered an illustration from the book that was a childhood favorite. Sadly, the book was lost and I never thought I could get it again. Now, some 14 years since I last saw the book I can still visualize the pictures and hear the wonderful tale of Anansi the spider, his sons and the moon. I have just bought two copies, one for my niece and one for my two year old daughter. I absolutely cannot wait to read them again and again and pass this memorable story to a new generation.

Editorial Review:

In trying to determine which of his six sons to reward for saving his life, Anansi the Spider is responsible for placing the moon in the sky.