Margaret Musgrove

A beautiful, little thirty-odd page magazine-sized book giving one African (basically, Sub-Saharan) tribe for each letter of the alphabet. Aimed at children and beautifully illustrated, this is a warmly loving sub-anthropological depiction featuring stylized art worth framing.

Margaret Musgrove has written an engaging and beautiful alphabet book. Using traditions, customs, vocabulary and setting she is able to introduce the reader to some of the many peoples of Africa. While each pictures displays gorgeous details to examine and texture to fall into, the text offers up traditions and information about varied peoples and traditions from a vast continent. There is a lot of information on every page, but the intricate illustrations aid in explaining some of the show more unfamiliar words.

It's one book, but the pages powerfully convey how much there is to learn and how much more there is to know about Africa and the people. Musgrove was able to distill down exhaustive research into a book anyone could enjoy. I could go on, but I could also sit back and turn through the pages again. It's clear that a new reading would offer up a never-before-seen bird, kente patterns to appreciate, or a smaller figure I had yet to notice. show less

Traditions from twenty-six peoples living on the African continent are lightly dipped into on the pages of the A to Z book. From the Vai and Ashanti of West Africa, to the Hausa of North Central Africa, to the Masai and Rendille of East Africa, to the Zulu and Sotho of South Africa, a diverse spread of traditions and peoples are introduced. Gorgeous, intricate illustrations combined with succinct and intriguing text really set this book off!

I like this book because of its visual brilliance and appreciation for spiders. This story uses bright colors and patterns purposefully. Both features bring the content of the story to life visually. For example, the spider's web contains a variety of colors which emphasizes its beauty. The two men are in awe of the spider's creation which is shown when the narrator says, "the men felt terrible for wrecking the magnificent web the night before". The story shares an appreciation for spiders show more by describing the spider's spider weaving process as a dance. It says "she moved like a woman dancing, regal and very graceful". This promotes a positive attitude towards spiders instead of the popular reaction of fear and disgust from people. This story's central idea is sharing an appreciation for what spiders can do and celebrating the beauty of the webs through redesigning "their looms so they could imitate the spider's weaving dance...and they named this new woven cloth kente-nwen-ntoma". This shows a pure, appreciative attitude towards spiders and their webs. show less