Nile River Book

12/11/2016 ** I am a librarian in a school with a significant number of students who have extended family in various countries in Africa. When I ask where their families are from, they simply reply, "Africa." I'm working hard with both students and staff to elicit a more specific response - the name of the actual country or region in Africa.

This book is effective, as far as it goes. It highlights a "typical" experience - breakfast, going to school, daily chores, lunch, transportation, dinner - of children in several countries of Africa. The illustrations are beautiful and portray the wide variety of clothing styles, food choices, and daily experiences of many children. Unfortunately, in all but one of the examples, the children are healthy, well-fed, and have both their parents. (The one exception is that children in Rwanda are orphans in a camp and the text tells us they're drawing pictures in the sand of men with guns and knives.) Just as there isn't a "typical" experience of children in the U.S., there can't be a "typical" experience of a child in each of these African countries - and not everyone is healthy, happy, and well-fed.

One other note: The book was published in 2000. It lists 53 African countries; South Sudan is not shown on the map. Last year I worked on a display for my school and found 54 countries with 106 languages.

I still plan to try to order this book for our school. It is a beginning.