books with African characters

[delphinedownunder]

I am a teacher in NZ and i have a new child in my class who is from Zimbabwe. I have been all through our library and the number of books we have that include African characters or even faces is really limited - lots of Maori and Pacific children as you would expect, but African families are just so rare outside of the small number of schools with Somalian refuge children and so are widely available books that include African faces. Today i found a non fiction book about breakfasts around the world that included photos of an African family and the child was so excited. She cried out "These people are just like me, look!" I am desperately looking for some more books I can buy from the UK to read to the class - so far, i have identified the Handa books and the Akimbo books. Any more suggestions?

I think you are wonderful for doing this. I live in Melbourne and when I gave my dd's prep teacher a picture book with black Cinderella in, I think she thought I was mad.

I think my dd finds it really hard that she is not represented in any of the things she sees at school here.

How old is your class?

Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman - is that the sort of thing you are looking for? I'm a teacher interested in children's books and I'm sure I have read more books with African characters - will keep thinking :)

There are picture and early chapter books in the Amazing Grace series.

There are a series of fairy tale books by 'jump at the sun'

Bernard Ashley has written some lovely books. Our favourite is Double the Love.

Floella Benjamin has written picture books.

The Jamela books by Nikki Daley.

Trish Cooke's 'Full Full full of Love' and 'So Much.'

Try the No 1 Car Spotter series by Atinuke, set in South Africa,

Picture books that come to mind are Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, The Village of Round and Square Houses (Ann Grifalconi), Eat Up, Gemma (Sarah Hayes)

I'll see if anything else comes to mind...

Anna Hibiscus books also by Atinuke.

This is a list of children's book by the African books collective. Presumably there will be plenty of African characters to be found.

You got there before me geogteach :o My daughter's read a couple of them and enjoyed them. Lovely little stories. We liked the one where Anna went to visit her aunt in Canada and experienced snow for the first time.

Handa's Surpise?

I work as a volunteer in a school library, and recently ordered a quantity of books from www.willesdenbookshop.co.uk, who specialise in multi cultural books. Might be worth taking a look to give you some ideas. The children at my school love Amazing Grace.

Not sure what age your pupils are, OP, but if they're younger there's an Anna Hibiscus picture book, too (Anna Hibiscus's Song I think is the title)

Lots of great books on here already.

If it's appropriate for the age you use colouring book/pages/stickers, misszee.net is great. The colouring books come with a couple pages of stickers in the back.

Alexander McCall Smith (he of the No 1 detective agency) has written kids books for older than picture books- short chapters

Quite a few here Handa's Surprise is a great book, both of mine loved it.

As well as Handa, Jamela etc we have these 3 books at home which are African stories

The Honey Hunters by Francesca Martin - a traditional African folk tale with absolutely beautiful illustrations
www.amazon.co.uk/The-Honey-Hunters-Francesca-Martin/dp/0744531608

Esther and the Baby Baboon by Susan Gates - this is (I think) based in West Africa but the illustrations and animals would be familiar to your pupil I'm sure. It's for slightly older readers but would be a lovely one to read to a class. I got mine in a 2nd hand shop, I think it is now out of print - can't find it to buy new anywhere -but it is on UK Ebay for 99p with worldwide postal options!

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Esther-and-Baby-Baboon-Young-Hippo-Animal-Gates-Susan-P-Good-/310582914753?pt=Fiction&hash=item48502f2ec1

African Animals ABC by Philippa Alys-Browne , this is an ABC with gorgeous illustrations - Southern Africa I think so would perhaps be very familiar animals for a Zimbabwean child

www.amazon.co.uk/African-Animals-ABC-Philippa-Alys-Browne/dp/1898000530

In fact have just seen on Amazon UK that the Animals ABC author is Zimbabwean!

There's one I remember from school called Bonolo and the Peach Tree by Jabulo Ndebele. I should remember more to be honest as I grew up in Africa and we read LOADS of books by African authors with African characters but that's the only one I can remember!

Am on a roll now!

Mama Panya's Pancakes is another one (based in Kenya)

www.amazon.co.uk/Mama-Panyas-Pancakes-Village-Kenya/dp/1905236638

A is for Africa (another ABC book - lovely photographs)

www.amazon.co.uk/Africa-World-Alphabet-Ifeoma-Onyefulu/dp/0711210292

We All Went On Safari (my son's class - age 4 & 5 - read this book as part of their "Africa week" school project)

www.amazon.co.uk/We-All-Went-Safari-Counting/dp/1841487821/ref=pd_sim_b_2

We're Going On A Lion Hunt (another one from my son's class!)

www.amazon.co.uk/Were-Going-Lion-David-Axtell/dp/0333741498/ref=pd_sim_b_2

Have also heard very good things about Chidi Only Likes Blue (by the same author as A is for Africa - Nigrian)

www.amazon.co.uk/Chidi-Only-Likes-Blue-African/dp/0711211256/ref=la_B001H6UXPI_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1361831053&sr=1-10

oops *Nigerian

So much by Trish Cooke, it's about an African American family, my mixed race dd loved it.

DD likes The Boy on the Beach by Niki Daly.

The Hunter by Paul Geraghty is a nice story.
An angel just like me by Mary Hoffman
If you search Mary Hoffman on Amazon it comes up with all sorts of books featuring African children! I like the look of 'I love my hair' :)

I Love my Hair is brilliant!

Zia the orchestra - HERE is a great book about a child having fun.