A Story about Afiya

Description

Every day, Afiya wakes to a brand new day and a clean white dress, ready for her adventures to begin…

Some people have dresses for every occasion but Afiya needs only one. Her dress records the memories of her childhood, from roses in bloom to pigeons in flight, from tigers at the zoo to October leaves falling. A joyful celebration of a young girl’s childhood, written by the late Coretta Scott King Book Award-winning Jamaican poet James Berry.

WINNER of the Northern Lights Book Awards Picture Book of the Year. USBBY Outstanding International Book 2021. New York Times, 25 Best Children’s Books of 2020. A Guardian Children’s Book of the Month.

“A joyous celebration of childhood, culture and place”–The New York Times, 25 Best Children’s Books of 2020

“A unique and beautiful combination of poetic story and expressive art”–Kirkus Reviews

“An exquisite celebration of the simple magic of childhood”–Shelf Awareness

“Gorgeous”–School Library Journal

“A book to treasure”–Books for Keeps, 5 STARS

About the Author
James Berry was a celebrated Jamaican poet, living in the UK. James received a Coretta Scott King Book Award and the Smarties Grand Prix, and was awarded an OBE by the Queen for services to poetry. He passed away in 2017.
Anna Cunha is an award-winning Brazilian artist who has illustrated more than 20 books for Brazilian and international publishers. She is the illustrator of bestselling titles A Story About Afiya and Anita and the Dragons.
Reviews
A young girl wears a special white dress that records her day’s experiences in this story by Jamaican poet Berry. Afiya’s ‘fine black skin…shows off her white clothes, ‘ a summer dress that she wears every day and washes every night. By day, the ‘frock’ picks up images of whatever Afiya passes among–sunflowers, red roses, butterflies, animals, fish, or falling leaves. By night, the imprints stay when she washes her dress, but in the morning, her dress is white again, ready for new patterns and colors to impress themselves upon it. Afiya is ‘amazed’ at the wonders she finds on her dress, and readers will be amazed at the beauty of Cunha’s artistic rendering. Afiya’s hair surrounds her head like a crown, and the fantastical colors of her natural world, landscapes dominated by muted pinks, blues, and burnt yellow, all serve to enhance the beauty of Afiya’s dark skin. The spare, matte illustrations offer a feast of images to set the imagination soaring while the surreal story and its unusual language turn the wheels of the mind. A unique and beautiful combination of poetic story and expressive art.–Kirkus Reviews

— “Journal”