A Stork in a Baobab Tree: An African 12 Days of Christmas - Hardcover

House, Catherine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1847801161 ISBN 13: 9781847801166

Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2011

Synopsis

Set in Africa during the Christmas season, this is the story of a village preparing for a celebration - the birth of a child. The story is told in verse inspired by the traditional carol The Twelve Days of Christmas, but in this version by the author Catherine House the gifts are: 1 stork in a baobab tree, 2 thatched huts, 3 woven baskets, 4 market traders, 5 bright khangas, 6 women pounding, 7 children playing, 8 wooden carvings, 9 grazing goats, 10 drummers drumming, 11 dancers dancing and 12 storytellers. This is a Christmas steeped in the atmosphere of African village life, including descriptions of the objects and activities mentioned in the text.

About this title

About the Author

CATHERINE HOUSE is an established educational writer who specialises in writing for African and Caribbean schools, and who has worked with leading educational publishers, including Macmillan Education. She has lived and worked in Kenya, Sudan, Eritrea and Zimbabwe. She now lives in Oxford where she works part-time for a charity helping homeless people. This is her first book for Frances Lincoln.Polly Alakija's paintings have been widely and successfully exhibited throughout Africa, Europe, and the U.K. The author of A Stork in a Baobab Tree, an African version of The Twelve Days of Christmas, she divides her time between Gloucestershire, U.K. and her family's farm in Nigeria.

From Booklist

“On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a stork in a baobab tree.” Far from the generic view of Africa as one picturesque place, this lively picture-book version of the Christmas carol, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” blends African and Christian elements in spreads that count across 12 different African countries, starting with one stork in Botswana and moving on to two huts in Zimbabwe, five khangas in Uganda, and 11 dancers in Morocco. Each bright, acrylic painting of a particular setting includes a brief note about the country and culture represented. Some people portrayed in the images dress in Western style, some are in traditional clothes. And the six women pounding a traditional meal of maize in Mali are pleased to use an electric grinding mill. House has lived with her family in several African countries, and the pages show the continent’s rich diversity, old and new, as well as universal joys, including a newborn baby. Grades K-3. --Hazel Rochman

Edition details

• Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children's Books
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1847801161
• ISBN 13: 9781847801166
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Alakija Polly