Nana Akua Goes to School

Although Zura loves her Nana Akua, she is anxious about bringing her to Grandparents Day at her school in this heartwarming picture-book, worried that someone might comment upon her grandmother's facial markings, or say mean things. Nana Akua knows what to do however, bringing along Zura's special

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quilt, which contains many of the Adinkra symbols of their Ashanti heritage. Explaining to the children in Zura's class that her facial markings were a gift from her parents, and have a specific meaning, she invites them to choose a symbol themselves, from the quilt, and she paints it on their faces...

Having greatly enjoyed illustrator April Harrison's work in Patricia C. McKissack's What Is Given from the Heart, I was excited to learn that she had another picture-book out, and I picked up Nana Akua Goes to School with some anticipation. I was certainly not disappointed, from an aesthetic perspective, finding the mixed-media collage illustrations here lovely. The story from author Tricia Elam Walker was also appealing, and I particularly liked the fact that Nana Akua decided to share her cultural heritage by inviting others to partake of it, however briefly. In this day of acrimonious (and often vapid) discussions of things like "cultural appropriation," it's good to see a story emphasizing the idea of culture as something meant to be shared. I also liked the Adinkra symbols themselves, finding them quite fascinating. As someone interested in languages and writing systems, they struck me as a kind of proto-pictograph system, and I found myself wondering whether they might not have evolved into a more complex and complete writing system, if history had fallen out differently, and Ghanaians and other West Africans hadn't adopted the Latin alphabet. In any case, this was a charming picture-book, one with an engaging story about family and culture, and beautiful illustrations. Recommended to picture-book readers seeking stories about grandparents, cultural difference, and cultural sharing.

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