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Nana’s Cold Days

by Adwoa Badoe, Bushra Junaid, illus.

What do you do when your grandma from Africa comes to visit and then won’t get out of bed because it’s too cold? The children in this picture book by storyteller Adwoa Badoe (The Pot of Wisdom) have been looking forward to this visit for months, but can’t entice Nana out into air that she says is “too cold for living things.”

Nana’s stubborn reaction and her family’s efforts to rouse her are amusingly and gently presented. There is room in this family for everyone to be grumpy without losing the affection of the others. The grandmother eventually finds her own way out of the situation, and the story ends with the promise of lots of fun for the children with this spunky old lady.

Growing up in St. John’s, Newfoundland, with a Jamaican mother and Nigerian father gave young artist Bushra Junaid special insight into the immigrant experience. In this, her first book, she uses colourful collages of painted and printed papers, which effectively emphasize the humour of the story and the reactions of the characters. Sometimes the effect is surprising, as when the photos that are cut out and used for the characters’ clothing or bedding contain images of sky, fruit, or faces, thereby slyly drawing attention to the collage technique. Both the collage illustrations and the story’s focus on a little conflict in the life of a loving family are reminiscent of the groundbreaking picture books of Ezra Jack Keats, such as A Snowy Day. Imaginative illustrations and a genial treatment of an immigrant family’s experience make Nana’s Cold Days an engaging contribution to multicultural Canadian children’s literature.

 

Reviewer: Gwyneth Evans

Publisher: Groundwood Books

DETAILS

Price: $15.95

Page Count: 32 pp

Format: Cloth

ISBN: 0-88899-479-6

Released: Oct.

Issue Date: 2002-10

Categories: Picture Books

Age Range: ages 3-6