Picture Book 26

A.    Author: Margy Burns Knight and Mike Melnicove

B.     Title: Africa is Not a Country

C.     Illustrator:  Anne Sibley O’Brien

D.    Readability: Grades 1-4

E.     Genre: Diversity

F.      Subgenre: Fiction

G.    Theme: Africa, Social life, Customs.

H.    Primary and secondary characters: Arim and Efrem

I.       Award(s) date of publication: N/A

J.       Publishing company:

K.    ISBN number:

L.      Brief summary: Africa is not a country, it is a continent. It has 53 nations and is bigger than the US and China combined. It is completely divided by the equator, and is as wide as it is long.  Arim and Efrem prepare for school. The boys kiss their parents and say Yekenielai, meaning thank you in Tigrinya. In the village of Cameroon, Mantoh spends an hour selling milk. Then they hade for school. In Kenya Arangi and Kip run long distances so they can be marathon runners, they dream of being in races around the world. Mapula in Botswana pays for fresh bread with a pula so she can eat breakfast. In Lesotho, Thomas wraps up in a blanket as they travel down the mountain by horse. In Cario, Mona, Basma, and Hala rush to school, they stop at a kiosk to buy food, they then walk down by the Nile River. In 1957, Ghana declared independence from Great Britain, the students of Ghana learn about it. In Zimbabwe students practice for a choir concert. The rest of the book goes through major cities of importance in African history. It tells us how students live in Africa.  

M.   Description of how you would use the book with students: This book informs us of how students live and play in Africa. It also educates us about each region of Africa. We can have students pick a city and they can research it and bring it back to the classroom.