Noel From Tanzania

by Mary Duda

Overview

Join Noel on a personal visit to Tanzania and get to know what day to day life is like there. See where Noel lives, what he eats, what animals are in his household, where he goes to school, take a safari to the world famous Serengeti National Park and join him as he learns a magic trick. Supplemented with color photographs, and maps, this book will help children better understand Tanzanian culture. Includes a teacher's guide and a glossary of Tanzanian words in Swahili.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780997266757
Publisher:	River Junction Press, LLC
Publication date:	04/01/2017
Series:	Kids Around the Globe Series
Pages:	36
Sales rank:	1,102,993
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.20(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Mary Duda is a volunteer reader for the Trinity Reads Program in Omaha, Nebraska and travels on mission trips for her church. Her books introduce children from around the world.

Read an Excerpt

Noel From Tanzania

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By Mary C. Duda

River Junction Press

Copyright © 2016 Mary Duda
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-9972667-2-6

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CHAPTER 1

Jambo, my name is Noel.

Jambo means "hello" in Swahili, the language of Tanzania.

Karibu, welcome to my home. I live here with my mother and father.

Jambo, my mother says hello.

Here is the kitchen. My mother doesn't cook food in the kitchen.

She cooks outside over a wood fire.

This is the bathroom. Does it look like your bathroom?

Only cold water comes out of the shower. You mix it with heated water in a cup and pour it over your head.

This is our yard and our cat.

Does my cat look like the cats in your country?

We also have cows, chickens and goats.

The cows and goats give us fresh milk to drink.

The chickens lay eggs for us to eat at breakfast. Can you find the turkey?

This is my school. We study math, reading, Swahili and English. When we are twelve we have to pass a test to go to secondary school.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Noel From Tanzania by Mary C. Duda. Copyright © 2016 Mary Duda. Excerpted by permission of River Junction Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

04/01/2017
Gr 1–3—Young schoolboy Noel provides a glimpse into his daily life in Tanzania. The friendly title begins, "Jambo, my name is Noel." Two other Swahili words, karibu (welcome) and asante (thank you), are also introduced. Noel is portrayed as a happy, energetic kid, though there are apparently "no other children where I live," a comment that is left unexplained. His home, where he lives with his parents, is modest but tidy. Noel takes readers through a few rooms, asking questions along the way ("Does it look like your bathroom?"). In addition to owning a cat, Noel and his family have cows, chickens, and goats—farm kids can relate. Noel's school and a weekly community auction of food and animals are also depicted. In school he studies math, reading, Swahili, and English. Each page displays a color photograph with a couple of sentences. The photos are often blurry or unfocused, but the text is large and generally accessible. The book closes with a basic map of Africa, highlighting where Tanzania is located. VERDICT An additional choice for large geography collections.—Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WI

School Library Journal

2017-02-06
First of a series dedicated to children around the world, this photo essay is a well-intentioned snapshot of the life of 8-year-old Noel, growing up in a Tanzanian village near Mount Kilimanjaro. With this book of big heart and moderate resources, self-described missionary Duda makes the most of a 2016 visit to Tanzania by attempting to capture Noel's story. Using her own photographs, the author shows his school, home, and daily life. Squeezing in some elementary Swahili ("jambo/hello"; "karibu/welcome"; "asante/thank you"), the book also includes a trip to the village marketplace. The intention of this new series is to introduce young American readers to children around the globe; according to the back cover, "The better we know each other, the easier it is to become friends." If readers are expecting an expansive, diverse view of Tanzanian culture and the breadth of the experience and possibility of growing up on the African continent, this leaves much to be desired. While its approach is earnest and sincere, it is nevertheless a narrow, representative framing without even other voices drawn from the local Tanzanian community to amplify Noel's. In the end it simply feels like the author's brief, international faith-based field trip. Do readers meet Noel or simply browse the stories and photos the author brought back with her? Though this first entry is a failure, there's potential here for this series if its producers are willing to immerse themselves. Here's to it. (Informational picture book. 5-9)

Kirkus Reviews