"This infectiously exuberant, dazzlingly illustrated tale celebrates carnival magic, ancestral history, freedom, community and family love."
Being confirmed admirers of Yaba Badoe’s fiction for older readers, we were thrilled to hear about her first work for younger children, with Joelle Avelino’s beautifully bright, dynamic illustrations promising the perfect feast of words and pictures. As expected, the result certainly lives up to its promise. Set in present-day Notting Hill, Man Man and the Tree of Memories is a bedazzlement of carnival magic, African-Caribbean culture and ancestral connections.
We meet young Man-man in Notting Hill as he’s practising his carnival dance steps, with his nan recently arrived from Jamaica to take care of his ill mother. With “Let Freedom Rain” the theme of this year’s carnival, Man-man’s Aunt Flo, a costume-making seamstress, asks who he’s going to be, explaining that “for one day and one day only, you can decide who you are and feel it deep down.” Such is the magic of carnival.
While Man-man keeps his plans a secret from everyone but Aunt Flo, his exuberance invokes the Queen of Revels, whom he asks to make his mum better. This sees Man-man, along with his best friend and sister, swept back in time and across the world to Africa. Here, after they assemble around the Tree of Memories and witness painful, brutal realities of Man-man’s family’s heritage, Man-man comes to understand how the anguish held in the Tree is afflicting his mother. Propelled by profound love and newfound knowledge, hope, joy and freedom burst forth. What a splendidly inventive book.
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Illustrated in vibrant full-colour, a story of dance, celebration, carnival and slavery, about a family understanding their past to change the future. Set in contemporary Notting Hill, Man-man and his friends are swept up in the exuberant preparations for carnival. But his mother is ill and even as he dances, he calls desperately to the Queen of Revels, as old as time to make her well again.
Swept away with his best friend Kareem and sharp-tongued sister Panama, to a place in between, the Queen of Revels plunges Man-man into Africa's past and reveals his family's heritage. As they gather around the sacred Tree of Memories, he witnesses many slaves, captives whose pain and anguish and longing is held by the tree.
Man-man understands how this is draining his mother and how he must help her back to the freedom stolen from his ancestors
Watch Illustrator Joelle Avelino and author Yaba Badoe introduce Man Man and the Tree of Memories
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed Man Man and the Tree of Memories and determined it is suitable for children aged 9-12 years old
Man Man and the Tree of Memories features in the following genres: Adventure Stories, Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Books of the Month, Recommendations, Featured Books for 11+ readers, Historical Fiction, PSHE: Bullying and Discrimination, Personal Social Health Economic (PSHE), PSHE: Multiculturalism, Diversity and Inclusion, Star Books, Stories about Family and Friends, Featured Books for 9+ readers
Man Man and the Tree of Memories is available in Paperback, Hardback
Man Man and the Tree of Memories was written by Yaba Badoe and published by Zephyr an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Man Man and the Tree of Memories has 178 pages
Yes it is part of The Zephyr Collection, Your Child's Library series
£10.80
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