Masai and I

A young black girl living in the city compares her life with that of the East African people called the Masai in this whimsical and energetic picture book.

In school one day, a little girl named Linda learns about East Africa and a tall, proud people called the Masai. She feels a kinship with them and imagines how her life would be if she lived there. She would live in a circle of huts in a tiny village instead of her apartment building. Instead of having a hamster as a pet, she would live among the giraffes and zebras on the African plain.

Linda’s observations celebrate things that are different and things that are the same, as her imagination opens the door to a place where Masai might become Masai and I.

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 Thomas Jefferson and the Mammoth Hunt, Queen Victoria’s Bathing Machine, Fannie in the Kitchen, and Loud Emily, among other books. Her works have garnered many honors, including a Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Honor and a California Young Reader Medal. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Visit her at NancyCarpenter.website.