Nana Akua Goes to School by Tricia Elam Walker

 Nana Akua Goes to School

by Tricia Elam Walker

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/52783249

Synopsis: 

This story about a girl named Zura takes place in her grade school classroom, as they get ready for Grandparents Day.  Zura is apprehensive about Nana Akua attending, as she is fearful that her classmates will be unkind to Nana Akua because she has tribal markings on her face that her parents gave her as a child in West Africa. 

My Takeaways: 

There are so many things to love about this book.  The writing is full of figurative language, which would help to paint a vivid picture in the mind of a young reader.  One example I liked in particular was when Zura mentioned that Nana Akua is her favorite person and that even though her feet do not reach the ground as she is sitting at the table she is “as tall as the giant playground slide”.   However, the illustrations also do an excellent job of showcasing the events and characters in the story, including a visual representation of the Adinkra symbols and their meanings at the beginning of the book, and a view of the class that includes a diverse population of students. 

I really loved how sensitive Zura was to the idea that her classmates would be cruel to Nana, since her tribal markings made her appear different and scary to people they encountered in the past.  However, Nana Akua had a great idea and instructed Zura to bring a quilt Nana had made for her, which had all of the Adinkra symbols on it.  I thought it was very ingenious of Nana to liken her tribal markings to tattoos commonly found in today’s society, in order to help the students better understand them.  Nana explained that she was proud of the symbols her parents had chosen for her. During her presentation, Nana had Zura bring out the quilt, and let each student choose a symbol that was meaningful to them, which she painted on the face of each student. Even the other grandparents participated in this activity, and Zura chose a symbol for herself that meant “power and unity”, which I felt was very meaningful in terms of the message of the story. 

Conclusion:

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, but would caution anyone who wanted to utilize this book as a read aloud to go through it carefully and use the glossary at the end of the book to prepare for the correct pronunciation of the Adinkra words contained in the story. This story highlights the importance of learning about and embracing cultural differences in order to promote understanding and finding the power in being proud of your history.

(Word Count: 435)