Gabrielle Emanuel

This book showed a realistic view of another country's culture an daily life. The story is very credible, as it was written by a woman who lives in Mali. At the end of the book , she describes how she moved to Mali and would tell the children stories, but then began telling the stories with settings and characters that the children could relate to. The book focuses on a woman with a little girl tied onto her back. The little girl is the narrator and she describes what it's like riding on her mom's back. The books illustrations are done in watercolor. The illustrations are very important because they show that the people living like this are very happy in what they are doing. They are not shown as impoverished or miserable in any way, like they could very easily be in the media. I think this book could be good for grades 2nd and up and bring up good conversations about different cultures.… (more)