World Kid Lit Month: Bingo for 0-6: Africa

Baby books

Written by Atinuke, illustrated by Angela Brooksbank.

Walker Books UK, 2025.

There are four books featuring Baby and their family and adventures in Nigeria. Okay, they may not all be the same baby and family - but I'm pretty sure at least the alphabet ones are. 

I love the joy and simplicity of these books – and the love. So much love. Love for family. Love for the surroundings. Love of life.

Books starring mischievous Baby are: 

• Baby Goes to Market
• B is for Baby
• L is for Love
• M is for Mango. 

World Kid Lit Month 2024: Family and friends

This is a bit (a lot!) of an amalgamation of things, someone of a 'I want to include this, but where does it fit?' method of categorisation. 

Crow Baby by Helen Milroy. 

Crow Baby was born with two spirits: crow and human. This timeless tale, set in a timeless time - no-time and yet all-time - is deeply rooted in Australian First Nations stories and histories. 

Helen Milroy is a descendant of the Palyku people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. 

Halu Bongo! Be quiet Bongo! By Lani Young, Sisilia Eteuati & Nikki Mariner. 

A story of a beloved - yet barking - dog and how he annoys everyone. Until he saves the day. The lushness and busy-ness of a Samoan village is to the fore. I love how you can see the brushstrokes in the bright art. 

The Hug by Eoin McLaughlin & Polly Dunbar. 

This treasure is the first in a series of picture books featuring friends Hedgehog and Tortoise. The story reads from front-to-back, and from back-to-front, in parallel texts. 

L is for Love by Atinuke & Angela Brooksbank. 

I L is for LOVE this book - and the previous stories about this mischievous baby and their family in and around Lagos. 

'Ohana means family by Ilima Loomis & Kenard Park. 

A cumulative tale that celebrates Native Hawai'ian culture. 

World Kid Lit Month 2023: A Book from Africa

A book from Africa:

The kaya girl.
By Mamle Wolo. 

Little, Brown and Company, 2022. 

If you want to travel to another culture - to experience division and the effects of colonialism - then this middle grade book is what you're looking for. 

I live in a colonised land. I am the descendants of colonisers. I am working on seeing the impacts on Māori - the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa. 

I appreciate how 'different' this world is, to my Anglicised world view. 

World Kid Lit Month 2022: Day 30: YA fiction from a country where English isn't the main language

Bingo: YA fiction from a country where English isn't the main language

This book betrays my brother  By Kagiso Lesego Molope

World Kid Lit Month 2022: Day 19: A book from Africa

Bingo: A book from Africa:

B is for baby

By Atinuke and Angela Brooksbank.

World Kid Lit Month 2022: Day 13: A book written in English from a country where English isn't the main language

Bingo: A book written in English from a country where English isn't the main language:

Swimming on the lawn by Yasmin Hamid.

This was a really hard challenge!

I had to stretch the definition a bit...

It is a book set in such a country...  

And, is written by someone who grew up in such a country.

They now live in an English-speaking country.

They grew up speaking English.

The book is published by a company in an English-speaking country.

World Kid Lit Month 2021: ZAMBIA

ZAMBIA: 

Rise of the lioness: restoring a habitat and its pride on the Liuwa Plains. 

By Bradley Hague. 

In western Zambia, the vibrant world of the Liuwa Plains provides a perfect habitat for zebras, wildebeests and the mighty lions. But poaching and war have damaged this isolated wilderness, reducing its lion population to just one: Lady, the last lioness. 

World Kid Lit Month 2021: TANZANIA

TANZANIA: 

Lala salama: a Tanzanian lullaby. 

By Patricia MacLachlan; illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon. 

A mother relates the events of a peaceful day along the banks of Lake Tanganyika to her baby, wrapped up and ready for sleep.

World Kid Lit Month 2021: SUDAN

SUDAN: 

Brothers in hope: the story of the lost boys of Sudan. 

By Mary Williams; illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. 

Eight-year-old Garang, orphaned by a civil war in Sudan, finds the inner strength to help lead other boys as they trek hundreds of miles seeking safety in Ethiopia, then Kenya, and finally in the United States. 

World Kid Lit Month 2021: SOUTH AFRICA

SOUTH AFRICA: 

Books and bricks: how a school rebuilt the community. 

By Sindiwe Magona, in collaboration with Ellen Mayer; with an afterword by Dr. Allistair Witten. 

Residents of an impoverished South African town find new hope when they come together at their school and start a brickmaking business. 

 

World Kid Lit Month 2021: SOMALIA

SOMALIA: 

Muktar and the camels. 

By Janet Graber; illustrated by Scott Mack. 

Muktar, an 11-year-old refugee living in a Kenyan orphanage, dreams of tending camels again, as he did with his nomadic family in Somalia, and has a chance to prove himself when a traveling librarian with an injured camel arrives at his school. 

World Kid Lit Month 20221: SIERRA LEONE

SIERRA LEONE: 

Ballerina dreams: a true story. 

By Michaela DePrince and Elaine DePrince; pictures by Ella Okstad. 

At the age of three, Michaela DePrince found a photo of a ballerina that changed her life. She was living in an orphanage in Sierra Leone at the time, but was soon adopted by a family and brought to America. Michaela never forgot the photo of the dancer she once saw, and decided to make her dream of becoming a ballerina come true.

World Kid Lit Month 2021: NIGERIA

NIGERIA: 

Baby goes to market. 

By Atinuke & Angela Brooksbank. 

When Baby and Mama go to market, baby is so adorable that the banana seller gives him six bananas. Baby eats one and puts five in the basket, but Mama doesn't notice. As Mama and Baby wend their way through the market stalls, cheeky Baby collects five juicy oranges, four sugary chin-chin biscuits, three roasted sweetcorn, two pieces of coconut... until Mama notices that her basket is getting very heavy. Poor Baby, she thinks — he must be very hungry by now!

World Kid Lit Month 2021: NAMIBIA

NAMIBIA: 

A baby elephant in the wild. 

By Caitlin O'Connell; photographs by Caitlin O'Connell & Timothy Rodwell. 

With in-the-field photographs, this photo essay brings young children to the African scrub desert to witness how a baby elephant survives in the wild.

World Kid Lit Month 2021: MOROCCO

MOROCCO: 

Mirror. 

By Jeannie Baker. 

Two diverse cultures, countries and families are linked with warmth and charm in this two-in-one picture book. Page by page we experience a day in the lives of two boys and their families — one from inner-city Sydney and the other from a small, remote village in Morocco, North Africa.

World Kid Lit Month 2021: MALAWI

MALAWI: 

The boy who harnessed the wind. 

By William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer; pictures by Elizabeth Zunon. 

When 14-year-old William Kamkwamba's Malawi village was hit by a drought in 2001, everyone's crops began to fail. His family didn't have enough money for food, let alone school, so William spent his days in the library. He came across a book on windmills and figured out how to build a windmill that could bring electricity to his village. Everyone thought he was crazy but William persevered and managed to create a functioning windmill out of junkyard scraps. Several years later he figured out how to use the windmill for irrigation purposes.

World Kid Lit Month 2021: LIBERIA

LIBERIA: 

Mrs. Chicken and the hungry crocodile. 

By Won-Ldy Paye & Margaret H. Lippert; illustrated by Julie Paschkis. 

When a crocodile captures Mrs. Chicken and takes her to an island to fatten her up, clever Mrs. Chicken claims that she can prove they are sisters and that, therefore, the crocodile shouldn't eat her.

World Kid Lit Month 2021: KENYA

KENYA: 

Wangari Maathai: the woman who planted millions of trees. 

By Franck Prévot; illustrated by Aurélia Fronty. 

Wangari Maathai received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her efforts to lead women in a nonviolent struggle to bring peace and democracy to Africa through its reforestation. Her organisation planted over 30 million trees in 30 years. This beautiful picture book tells the story of an amazing woman and an inspiring idea.

World Kid Lit Month 2021: GHANA

GHANA: 

Emmanuel's dream: the true story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah. 

By Laurie Ann Thompson; illustrated by Sean Qualls. 

Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah was born in Ghana with a severely deformed leg, but with boundless self-determination, he became a world-renowned athlete and activist. 

World Kid Lit Month 2021: ETHIOPIA

ETHIOPIA: 

Wherever I go. 

By Mary Wagley Copp; illustrated by Munir D. Mohammed. 

A hopeful and timely picture book about a spirited little girl living in a refugee camp. Of all her friends, Abia has been at the Shimelba Refugee Camp the longest — seven years, four months, and 16 days. Papa says that's too long and they need a forever home. Until then, though, Abia has something important to do. Be a queen.