Friday, November 23, 2007

Yatandou


Today I saw the most beautiful picture book, Yatandou. This one is award-worthy. By Gloria Whelan, who has written beautiful, lyrical novels, it tells the story of Yatandou, a girl living in a traditional Mali village. She spends her days tending her goat and pounding millet. The women in her village have heard of a contraption that will pound the millet for them - if they save enough money they can buy one. Yatandou dreams of learning to read and write and not having to pound millet three hours a day. Soon, all these dreams come true.

Whelan writes, in an author's note, about the "multi-functional platforms" that African women own, operate, and manage to make money for their villages.

The language is simple and beautiful with passages like, "Mother is returning. A water jug has had its little journey on her head."

The richly colored paintings by Peter Sylvadia evoke the heat of the desert and convey a sense of African life.

Not only is this picture book gorgeous, it also supports a good cause - the non-profit Building with Books. Building with Books engages urban youth in after-school programs where the kids engage in community service projects and go to developing countries to build schools. 90 of these schools where built in Mali.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oi, achei seu blog pelo google está bem interessante gostei desse post. Gostaria de falar sobre o CresceNet. O CresceNet é um provedor de internet discada que remunera seus usuários pelo tempo conectado. Exatamente isso que você leu, estão pagando para você conectar. O provedor paga 20 centavos por hora de conexão discada com ligação local para mais de 2100 cidades do Brasil. O CresceNet tem um acelerador de conexão, que deixa sua conexão até 10 vezes mais rápida. Quem utiliza banda larga pode lucrar também, basta se cadastrar no CresceNet e quando for dormir conectar por discada, é possível pagar a ADSL só com o dinheiro da discada. Nos horários de minuto único o gasto com telefone é mínimo e a remuneração do CresceNet generosa. Se você quiser linkar o Cresce.Net(www.provedorcrescenet.com) no seu blog eu ficaria agradecido, até mais e sucesso. If is possible add the CresceNet(www.provedorcrescenet.com) in your blogroll, I thank. Good bye friend.