Children's Africana Book Awards

Best Book for Older Readers

Aya
Marguerite Abouet & Clement Oubrerie
(Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Book for Young Children

Ikenna Goes to Nigeria
Ifeoma Onyefulu
(Frances Lincoln)




Honor Books 2008


A Long Way Gone
Ishmael Beah
(Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Rise of the Golden Cobra
Henry T. Aubin
(Annick Press, 2007)
Wiil Waal: A Somali Folktale
Kathleen Moriarty & Amin Amir (illus.)
(Minnesota Humanities Center, 2007)




Award Sponsors

The Outreach Council of the African Studies Association (ASA)is pleased to announce the winners of the 2008 Children's Africana Book Awards. The Outreach Council annually honors outstanding authors and illustrators of children's books about Africa published in the United States. The 2008 awards will be presented November, 2008 in Chicago, Illinois during the Teachers' Workshop at the annual meeting of the African Studies Association.



Best Book for Older Readers 2008


Aya
Marguerite Abouet & Clement Oubrerie (illus.)
(Drawn & Quarterly, 2007)

The graphic novel Aya tells the story of its 19-year old heroine, the studious and clear-sighted Aya, her easy-going friends Adjoua and Bintou, and their meddling relatives and neighbors. It's a breezy and wryly funny account of the desire for joy and freedom, and of the simple pleasures and private troubles of everyday life in Yop City, a suburb of Abidjan in Ivory Coast. An unpretentious and gently humorous story of an Africa we rarely see-spirited, hopeful and resilient.

Marguerite Abouet was born in Abidjan in 1971. At the age of 12, she was sent with her older brother to study in France under the care of a great uncle. She now lives in Romainville, a suburb of Paris, where she works as a legal assistant and writes novels she has yet to show to publishers. Aya is her first comic. It taps into Abouet's childhood memories of Ivory Coast in the 1970s, a prosperous, promising time in that country's history.

Clement Oubrerie was born in Paris in 1966. After a stint in art school he spent two years in the United States doing a variety of odd jobs, publishing his first children's books and serving jail time in New Mexico for working without papers. Back in France, he went on to a prolific career in illustration. With over 40 children's books to his credit, he is also co-founder of the 3-D animation studio, Station OMD. A drummer in a funk band in his spare time, he still travels frequently, especially to Ivory Coast. In Aya, his first comic, Oubrerie's warm colors and energetic, playful line connect expressively with Abouet's vibrant writing.



Best Book for Young Children 2008

Ikenna Goes to Nigeria
Ifeoma Onyefulu
(Frances Lincoln, 2007)

In stunning photographs and bright, informative prose, award-winning author Ifeoma Onyefulu recounts an unusual and rewarding journey. Young Ikenna lives in rainy London. He takes a trip far away to his ancestral home in sunny Nigeria. In Lagos he plays with his cousins. Then the rain starts! But there's still lots to do. Ikenna meets great-uncle Hillary, who drove the royal train across Nigeria in 1956. After that he and his Mum attend the Oshun Festival, and Ikenna sees age-old ceremonies and colorful traditions. Told in the first-person, this charming photographic book shows young readers the pleasures that await in other countries and cultures.

This is the second Children's Africana Book Award for author/photographer Ifeoma Onyefulu. Here Comes Our Bride was named Best Book for Young Children in 2005. Originally from Nigeria, she now lives in London.



Honor Books for Older Readers 2008

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Ishmael Beah
(Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2007)

What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived. Fifteen years ago, Sierra Leone’s civil war transformed the life of twelve year old Ishmael Beah. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier offers an inside view of how lives are transformed when war sweeps through a country. Beah was living an ordinary life in a loving community with no personal knowledge of armed conflict. The only wars he knew of were those he heard about on the BBC, read of in books or saw in movies like Rambo. When war found Beah, he was travelling to a nearby community to perform rap music in a talent show. He and the other members of his group were abducted and forced to fight alongside other young teens in the government’s army. Beah also details the difficult situation the child soldiers faced when released from the army – their homes destroyed and family members dead or missing. At fifteen Beah was selected to represent the children of Sierra Leone at a United Nations conference on children in conflicted countries.

Ishmael Beah came to the United States when he was seventeen and graduated from Oberlin College in 2004. He is a member of Human Rights Watch Children's Division Advisory Committee and has spoken before the United Nations on several occasions. He lives in New York City.



Honor Books for Older Readers 2008

Rise of the Golden Cobra
Henry T. Aubin
(Annick Press, 2007)

Set in the eighth century BCE, this historical novel follows the efforts of King Piankhy of Nubia to conquer lands in Egypt. After a dangerous mission to deliver to the king news of his enemies' plans, young Nebi joins Piankhy's army as an aide to Sheb, the king's ambitious nephew. Through his experiences in battle, Nebi learns powerful lessons about justice, revenge, and redemption.

Henry T. Aubin graduated from Harvard. He was a reporter for the Washington Post before joining the Montreal Gazette, where his investigative reporting and commentaries received three National Newspaper Awards. He is also co-winner of the B'nai Brith Media Human Rights Award. Rise of the Golden Cobra draws from a book Aubin published in 2003 entitled The Rescue of Jerusalem: The Alliance between Hebrews and Africans in 701 B.C.



Honor Book for Young Children 2008

Wiil Waal, A Somali Folktale
Kathleen Moriarty and illustrated by Amin Amir
(Minnesota Humanities Center, 2007)

When wise Somali leader Wiil Waal asks the men in his province to bring him the part of a sheep that best symbolizes what can divide men or unite them as one, most present him with prime cuts of meat. But one very poor man's daughter has a different idea. In this clever folktale, a father reluctantly follows his daughter's advice and has astonishing results.

Kathleen Moriarty has worked with a variety of language and literacy programs in the U.S. and overseas. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her son and serves as Director of Bilingual and Heritage Language Programs at the Minnesota Humanities Center.This is her first picture book for children.

Amin Amir is an established political cartoonist and artist. Born in Somalia, he currently lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His art has appeared in two collections of Somali folktales.This is his first bilingual children's picture book.