Picture Books : Recent & Recommended
Chapter Books : Recent & Recommended


In a dusty township in South Africa, Ajani and his friends have earned a brand-new, federation-size soccer ball. They kick. They dribble. They run. They score. These clever boys are football champions! But when a crew of bullies tries to steal their ball, will Ajani and his friends be able to beat them at their own game?
Author: Mina Javaherbin
Review

 
"John Bul Dau and his wife, Martha, describe the hardships they experienced, including violence, famine, and war, while growing up in the Sudan and explain how they escaped the region to start a new life."
Authors: John Bul Dau and Martha Arual Akech with Michel Sweeney and Karen Kostyal
Review

Best Book 2011

A picture book biography of scientist Wangari Maathai, the first African woman--and first environmentalist--to win a Nobel Peace Prize (in 2004), for her work planting trees in her native Kenya. Illustrations.
 Author: Jen Cullerton Johnston
Review

Chased after by the prince and his soldiers for a crime she did not commit, Nefertiti finds temporary refuge in the wild hills along the Nile's west bank before returning to the royal court to plead her case to the Pharaoh. The sequel to "Sphinx's Princess (2009) concerning Nefertiti.
Author: Esther Friesner
Review
Wangari Maathai known as Mama Miti, mother of trees, shares her wisdom with other women by advising them to plant trees native to Kenya to solve their many problems.
Author: Donna Jo Napoli
Review

 After their father's research experiment at the British Museum unleashes the Egyptian god Set, Carter and Sadie Kane embark on a dangerous journey across the globe--a quest which brings them ever closer to the truth about their family, and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.
Author: Rick Riordan
Review

Honor Book 2011

Presents an A to Z illustrated look at some of the people, places, items, and customs of South Africa.

Author: Beverley Naidoo
Review

 

The artist, ceramicist, writer, and storyteller describes his experiences growing up in a small village in Mali with his grandparents, and discusses how the memories have stayed with him his whole life.
Author: Baba Wagué Diakité
Review

Bonyo Bonyo is a true story about how a Kenyan boy's courage and determination, along with critical support from family and strangers, helped him live out his dream of becoming a physician. Pursuing his goal forces him to leave his family and ultimately his country. But years later he is able to return as a doctor.... Vanita Oelschlager wrote this book after interviewing Dr. Bonyo Bonyo. Dr. Bonyo Bonyo practices family medicine in Akron, Ohio. He tells each patient that they are family to him.
Author: Vanita Oelschlager
Review


This collection of Nigerian folktales includes ten tales from the Igbo ethnic group. The stories are illustrated by American artist Julia Cairns.
Author: Ifeoma Onyefulu

Deron and his mum get ready for his first day at a Ghanaian nursery school described and shown in photographs.
Author: Ifeoma Onyefulu 		When the Sudanese civil war reaches his village in 1985, eleven-year-old Salva becomes separated from his family and must walk with other Dinka ...through southern Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya in search of safe haven. Based on the life of Salva Dut, who, after emigrating to America in 1996, began a project to dig water wells in Sudan.
Author: Linda Sue Park
Review

Three year-old Stephanie and her family in Ghana welcome a visit from her grandmother as described and shown in photographs.
Author: Ifeoma Onyefulu

This novel is based on the real-life experience of Jacob Akech Deng, whose village Duk Padiet in Southern Sudan was attacked by Northern soldiers one night in October 1987. Seven year old Jacob escaped the burning village and joined a long line of young refugees known as the Sudanese ´Lost Boys.'
Author: Jan L. Coates

A fable about the origins of waterholes in Africa in which a goddess who descends to the Earth finds that the plants are wilting and the animals are thirsty and consequently places large pots of clay into the earth to collect rainwater; meanwhile, her daughter uses the leftover clay to make a necklace of dull beads, to which the animals add color to show their appreciation.
Author: Anne Faundez

Sixteen-year-old Gloria, who lives in poverty in Accra, dreams of becoming a dressmaker but has difficulty with school, and when a distant relative offers to pay for dressmaking school in exchange for Gloria looking after her son in Kumasi, Gloria accepts the offer and finds that life in Kumasi is full of temptations and distractions which she must struggle to overcome.
Author: Adwoa Badoe
Review

Seven-year old Tirhas prepares for and attends the annual Ashenda festival in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.
Author: Yohannes Gebregeorgis

An in-depth overview of apartheid, with chapters on the early history before the establishment of the apartheid regime, featuring profiles of many important leaders as well as clear discussion of present-day politics.
.Author: Liz Sonneborn

 
At a birthday celebration on the beach, Cora gives her grandmother a special gift and encourages her to make a trip back to her home country, Cape Verde.

A collection of folktales from the oral traditions of the Zarma people of Niger, West Africa.
Author: Amanda Cushman

Produced by a team of four Ethiopians, this picture book uses the alphabet and fine photographs to introduce young readers to the country, particularly Ethiopia’s rural areas.
Author: Ashenafi Gudeta

Thirteen-year-old Wuditu, an Ethiopian Jew, is separated from her family when soldiers take her and others from a refugee camp in Sudan where they had been waiting and hoping for transport to Israel. She keeps her dream of being reunited with her loved ones alive as she deals with the humiliation and discrimination.
Author: Judie Oron

 

 

Yafi, his parents, and two sisters, eight-year-old Kari and ten-year-old Anna, remember his early life and his adoption experience by telling stories, revisiting memories, and looking at photographs.
Author: Linda Pettitt and Sharon Darrow