What's Cooking, Jamela? - Softcover

Niki Daly

Softcover

ISBN 10: 071121705X ISBN 13: 9780711217058

Publisher: Frances Lincoln, 2002

Synopsis

Mama plans a chicken dinner for Christmas Day, and she gives Jamela the job of fattening up their chicken. But seeing how happy Jamela is with her hen, she wonders just how she'll get it away from Jamela and into the pot. Smelling trouble, Jamela sets off the day before Christmas with the chicken in her arms and a trail of chaos follows - in the street, in the taxi, and even in Miss Style's hairdressing salon. However, as everyone agrees, you can't eat friends, and Christmas Day brings Jamela a delicious meal and the best present of all! Following the success of Jamela's Dress, this new Jamela book features the same delightful characters set in a South African township.

About this title

About the Author

Niki Daly has won many awards for his exuberant work. His groundbreaking Not So fast Songololo (1986), winner of a U.S Parent's Choice Award, paved the way for post-apartheid South African children's books. Since then, he has been published across the globe and has visited and presented talks in several countries. Among his many Frances Lincoln books, Once Upon a Time was an Honor Winner in the US Children's Africana Book Awards of 2004. Jamela's Dress - first in the Jamela series - was another milestone book, chosen by the ALA as a Notable Children's Book and by Booklist as one of the Top 10 African American Picture Books of 2000, and winning both the Children's Literature Choice Award and the Parent's Choice Silver Award. Niki lives with his wife, the illustrator Jude Daly, in Mowbray, a bustling Cape Town suburb.

From Booklist

Ages 3-7. Once more the characters from Jamela's Dress (1999) have uproarious fun in the crowded street and at home in their South African black township. There's nothing new about the story. Jamela wants to stop the grown-ups from cooking her pet chicken for Christmas dinner, and everyone knows she'll succeed in the end. The fun comes when Jamela bungles the rescue and the chicken gets loose and spreads chaos everywhere. Daly lives in Cape Town, and his words and pictures capture Jamela's dynamic world, where Christmas comes under a summer sky and many people wear bright clothes in African prints. A few words from several languages are woven in: Aikona (Zulu for No!) and mielies (Afrikaans for corn), and the Wise Men in the school nativity play wear Madiba shirts (the glossary explains that Madiba is the affectionate Xhosa name for Nelson Mandela). The post-apartheid visual details are dramatic: in Jamela's small house the sink has two faucets (showing there's both hot and cold running water), and there's a black announcer on the television screen. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Frances Lincoln
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 071121705X
• ISBN 13: 9780711217058
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 36