Masai and I - Softcover

Kroll, Virginia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0689804547 ISBN 13: 9780689804540

Publisher: Aladdin, 1997

Synopsis

A young girl learns about East Africa and the Masai people and begins to wonder what her life would be like if she were Masai

About this title

About the Author:

Virginia Kroll began writing shortly after the birth of her fourth child. She is now the author of numerous books for children, including The Seasons and Someone, Butterfly Boy, and Masai and I.

Nancy Carpenter is the acclaimed illustrator of Fannie in the Kitchen, as well as Masai and I, Sitti’s Secrets, and Loud Emily, among other books. She lives with her husband, daughter, and cat in Brooklyn, New York.

From Publishers Weekly:

A young African American girl muses, "if I were a Masai," and compares her own life with what she has learned in school about East Africa and its inhabitants. She considers where a Masai girl would sleep, how she occupies her time, what kinds of animals she would see. The artwork, realistic and warm, portrays a joyful girl who feels "the tingle of kinship" with the Masai culture; her counterpart's spare environs, replete with exotic flora and fauna, are likewise strikingly depicted. The book's creative design--a Western scene on one page of each spread faces a typical Masai scene on the other--seamlessly blends corroborative colors and details: a yellow carpet becomes the dry savanna grass, the girl's bedsheet turns into a cowhide covering. (The final spread, however, may prove confusing: two characters are shown in Masai dress at an otherwise typical Western Thanksgiving dinner.) Kroll's beguiling language--"whole flocks of flashing fireflies turned trees into lanterns"--offers resonant images; the last paragraph, in particular, rings proud and positive: "I come home and stare at my reflection in my bedroom mirror . . . smooth brown skin over high cheekbones and black eyes that slant up a little when I smile. I like what I see." Ages 4-7.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Aladdin
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0689804547
• ISBN 13: 9780689804540
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Carpenter Nancy