Elizabeti's Doll - Hardcover

Stuve-Bodeen, Stephanie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1880000709 ISBN 13: 9781880000700

Publisher: Lee & Low Books, 1998

Synopsis

When her mother has a baby boy, little Elizabeti, a Tanzanian village girl, makes a doll from a rock, with which she imitates her mother's loving care of her brother and comes to love with a moving tenderness.

About this title

About the Author:

CHRISTY HALE has illustrated numerous award-winning books for children, including two
that she also wrote. As an art educator, Hale has introduced young readers to the lives and
works of many artists through Instructor magazine's Masterpiece of the Month feature andaccompanying workshops. Hale lives with family in Palo Alto, California.

From Publishers Weekly:

In an impressive debut, Stuve-Bodeen warms the heart and hearth with this sweetly evoked tale inspired by her experiences in the Peace Corps. Set in a Tanzanian village, the story tells of Elizabeti, who watches her mother care for her new baby brother and longs for a little one of her own to cuddle. She has no doll, so instead she looks around for a suitable "baby" and soon finds a rock that's shaped just right. Carefully mimicking her mother, she bathes, feeds (her doll is "too polite to burp") and changes "Eva," and when doing chores ties Eva to her back "with a bright cloth called a kanga," just as her mother does. Downcast when Eva is misplaced (her sister accidentally uses the rock for the cooking fire), Elizabeti finds her special doll in time to sing her to sleep. Stuve-Bodeen's well-balanced prose strikes just the right tranquil, gently humorous tone. She lovingly delineates the mother-daughter relationship, and offers a rare, intimate view of another culture while sounding a universal chord. Hale (Juan Bobo and the Pig), meanwhile, deftly captures the story's mood in softly shaded mixed-media illustrations, juxtaposing brightly printed motifs in African fabrics against an earthy, sundrenched palette. The artist is equally adept at conveying close-up portraits with a full emotional range as she is a village scene of Elizabeti carrying a water jug atop her head. A little slice of perfection. Ages 4-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Lee & Low Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1880000709
• ISBN 13: 9781880000700
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Hale Christy