Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Over the Green Hills - Rachel Isadora

Greenwillow Books, 1992
32 pages
Rating: 3.5

Endpapers: Dark Brown

This story was written while apartheid was still in force in South Africa. The setting of this story is on the eastern coast of South Africa, and according to an author's note, in the Transkei, a South African government-assigned independent state.

Zolani and his mother spend the best part of the day walking to their grandmother's village, trading goods and being given gifts for Grandma Zindzi as well.l The mother carries a box, a pumpkin, and a live chicken on her head! Zolani brings his goat, who carries mussels and firewood.

This book gives a sense of living in this part of South Africa. I've got a feeling, however, that the area is a lot poorer than it appears.

Full-page illustrations are created in deep, rich watercolors. Very lovely, heartwarming and realistic.

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