Where'd the Village go?

 

The Village That Vanished
Written by Ann Grifalconi
Illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Published by Puffin Books

Copyright 2002
37 pages

 

I chose this book mostly because it looked on the outside cover to obviously be about Africa. For a while now I have been wanting to visit the continent of Africa, so anything that looks African is interesting to me. The title looked really interesting as well. I immediately wanted to know why the whole village vanished.  Also, Kadir Nelson is the illustrator of this book, and he has done so many of the other books that I have read. I love his drawings. They are sure to always be beautiful and simple, and that’s the way I like things. This book was a huge disappointment to me. I was really interested and thought that there would be more depth/background to the story. Unfortunately, my hopes were let down. This story is focused around the prayer life of a young African girl. She wishes to one day be able to eloquently and properly pray just as her mother could. There were slave traders that were coming into the villages and burning them all down. This particular village decided that it was best to try and flee the slave traders. They did so until they got caught up at the edge of the river. The young girl prayed right there that God would show her the way, and that He would ease their burdens about crossing this river. So she immediately began praying the beautiful prayer and the way across the river was revealed. Huge stones were there to lead this village across the river and into the safety that awaited them. The author did a great job of blending African traditions and customs along with an easy to read and incredibly motivational story.
                            The illustrator is famous for her drawings that normally follow oil painting. The images contain unimaginable tiny details. There is a unique design on everything. Every illustration consumes seventy-five percent of the pages, and the text is written in a type face below of above the picture. Behind the text is negative space. The text placement would have to be considered the most formal. The cover of this book is another on of the interestingly hard paperbacks. This must be the new way to create paperbacks, in order that they may last longer. This cover has a wrap-around illustration effect. The title page has a very nice illustration that does a wonderful job setting up the curiosity of the reader.

This book could be used in the classroom in a Read Aloud lesson to share some of the African culture with the students. The teacher could complete a compare and contrast chart between Africa and America. This would be a great way to teach about how cultures are different and unique, but that humans are humans. This could also be turned into a writing assignment. The students could write about any traditions that may be passed down in their family. They could share these different traditions, and notice how even within their own culture there are differences. The teacher could share why different is always a good thing. The student’s could also write about one thing they wish to start as a tradition in their family.