Mariama--Different But Just the Same

January 12, 2015
First-time author Cornelles introduces Mariama, a girl from an unnamed African country who emigrates to another nation. Some things are new and strange (“the kids were nearly as white as the African moon that shone over the village where she used to live”), and some things are difficult (“And what am I supposed to talk to them about?” Mariama asks her mother. “Everything’s different here, but they think I’m the one that’s different”). Yet with help from newfound friends Hugo and Paula, she finds a place for herself in her new school and country. Uyá’s (Snowbound Secrets) loose, folk-style paintings show Mariama wondering at the highways in her new city (“long, grey tongues”), then putting a book over her head, overwhelmed with the task of learning another language. Although the story is honest about Mariama’s ambivalence and loss—it ends as her thoughts turn to her beloved grandmother back in Africa—some heavy-handedness (“Black or white, Mariama, Hugo, and Paula were all children.... who wanted to play and laugh”) may limit the story’s use to discussions about bridging cultural and racial divides. Ages 3–5.

December 15, 2014
When Mariama moves from Fulakunda, a small West African village, to a metropolis in Europe or North America, she adjusts to life with her new light-skinned friends and observes that they are more alike than different. The story is straightforward: A "little girl" is told by her parents "that she [is] going to move to a country far, far away." The art is amazing: On the verso is a beige, brush-stroked Africa, its western edge adorned with thatched-roof huts, a red-flowering tree and a woman in turquoise traditional dress. The faux handwritten script labels Mariama's village and "my grandma." Cranes fly across the page, connecting readers with a tearful Mariama, waving goodbye as her parents, in the background, approach a distant city. The vibrant, stylized illustrations complement such observations about the new land as, "There were no animals in the streets; and instead of earth, there were long, grey tongues." Although the culture shock is clear, from urban living to snowy winters to students "nearly as white as the African moon," the book does an injustice by equating the huge, diverse continent of Africa with Mariama's remembrances of village life. Or is that purposeful, related to an unexplained allusion to the children in her new home, "who didn't have to worry about anything else apart from being children"? The artwork will lure readers into spending time on each page, though the representation of Mariama's experience is at best elliptical. (brief African cultural notes) (Picture book. 5-8)

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February 1, 2015

PreS-Gr 2-Vibrant orange endpapers open with a stylized bird ascending, beginning the journey that is the subject of this colorful picture book. Mariama's family is moving from an unspecified country in West Africa to an unspecified country in the Western world. There she encounters children speaking "a very strange language," who are "nearly as white as the African moon." The simplified text details differences such as meals eaten with knives and forks, accompanied by salt shakers and toothpicks. The deliberately distorted illustrations add information as well as visual interest. As in the spread depicting food, readers see hands dipping into communal food bowls which are labeled, in cursive, "domoda: my favorite food." Unfortunately, not all African terms are explained in the short afterword. And there is nothing subtle about the message: "The most amazing thing for Mariama was discovering that the only difference...was the color of their skin; and that although they had different customs, they were just the same in every other way." VERDICT Appropriate for very young children, Mariama might be paired with a more realistic title, such as Children Just Like Me (DK, 1995) or Barbara Kerley's One World, One Day (National Geographic, 2009) for a more detailed comparison of children's lives in our diverse world.-Toby Rajput, National Louis University, Skokie, IL

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