WOW Review: Young People Taking Action for Social Changes
Volume III, Issue 4
Summer 2011
Table of Contents
Introduction and Editor’s Note
Big Red Lollipop
Written by Rukhsana Khan
The Bite of the Mango
Written by Mariatu Karnara and Susan McClelland
Annuqtatu Assawdaa (The Black Dot)
Written/Illustrated by Walid Tahir
Broken Memory: A Novel of Rwanda
Written by Élisabeth Combres
The Cruisers
Written by Walter Dean Myers
Dark Water
Written by Laura McNeal
First Come the Zebra
Written and Illustrated by Lynne Barasch
Going Going
Written by Naomi Shihab Nye
Our Secret, Siri Aang
Written by Christina Kessler
Traitor
Written by Gundrun Pausewang
Contributors:
Nojood Alsudairi, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Bart Hill, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Chloë Hughes, Western Oregon University, Monmouth, OR
Holly Johnson, University of Cincinnati
Prisca Martens, Towson University, Towson, Maryland, USA
Kelli Miller, Oklahoma State University, Tulsa, OK
Judi Moreillon, School of Library and Information Studies, Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas
Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Editor:
Janelle Mathis
Production Editor:
Richard Clift
WOW Review, Volume III, Issue 4 by Worlds of Words is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Based on work at https://wowlit.org/on-line-publications/review/iii-4/
WOW review: reading across cultures
ISSN 2577-0527
this is one of my favorites. great review, connected to reality very well.
This is a very unique book written about Maasai culture primarily from the perspective of a pre-adolescent female growing up in that world. A very engaging book in terms of background, cultural perspectives, and the surprising universalities of growing up, regardless of where in the world you are. The female protagonist, Namelok, will undoubtedly give new insight into what it means to be young in Africa to Western readers. This book is particularly enjoyable in terms of how it gives snapshots of what we have already seen about the Maasai culture, Kenya, wild African animals, etc. Yet at the same time, the viewpoint and perspectives of the people inside that culture take it a step further in terms of their modern struggles, survival, traditions, and what that means for the modern day Maasai. What I found particularly interesting are the explanations of how an African tribe views animals and their natural world, along with the ways in which they connect with it. Will that world be lost forever this century? It is a theme that shines through as a common thread running across the pages of this very original book written by a Westerner, Cristina Kessler, under the guidance of Kakuta Ole Maimai Hamisi, a Maasai who helped in the editing of the manuscript. This book stands out as another fine example of African literature, which is a literature that we know little of in North America, and that we undoubtedly need to get much closer to.
For your in formation “wunschkind child without a country” by Liesel Appel as paired in your review of “Traitor” was written by Mrs. Appel where she adapted her memoir “The Neighbor’s Son”for young adult readers. The site is wwwtheneighborsson.com.