Amadi's Snowman A Story of Reading

by Saint-lot, Katia Novet; Tokunbo, Dimitrea

• ISBN13: 9780884482987
• ISBN10: 0884482987
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-05-01
• Publisher: Tilbury House Publishers

Summary

Why does Amadi's mother insist he learn to read words when he is going to be a great businessman? Why should an Igbo man of Nigeria waste precious time on books, anyway? When Amadi disobeys his mother and runs off to the market instead of sticking around for a reading lesson, he encounters a much-admired older boy secretly reading at a book stall. Crowding himself in among the stacks of books, Amadi becomes intrigued by a storybook with pictures of a strange white creature with a carrot for a nose. Over the course of a typical mischievous day, unable to shake his questions about the snowman, Amadi discovers the vast world reading could open up - especially for an Igbo man of Nigeria.

Author Biography

Author Katia Novet Saint-Lot grew up in Paris but spent her summers visiting her mother's family in Spain. She has also lived in the U.S. and Canada. Her husband John is from Haiti and works for UNICEF; they have lived in Nigeria, where this story takes place, and ; now live in Hyderabad, India, with their two daughters. As a child, Katia loved to read and read and read. At night she would unscrew the bedside lamp from its base and create a little reading tent under her sheets. She dreamed of becoming a writer and long travels to faraway placesùand she is living her dreams. Illustrator Dimitrea Tokunbo brings to life the day-to-day experiences of life in Nigeria, where her father grew up. "I want to represent the beauty of all children. I feel that growing up biracial, having a direct connection to two different cultures in the American context, gives my art a spirit and spark that speaks to the children who were overlooked when I was a child." Dimitrea Tokunbo illustrated two children's books for Boyds Mills Press, Sidewalk Chalk: Poems of the City by Carole Boston Weatherford, and Has Anybody Lost a Glove? by G. Francis Johnson. Tokunbo has written one children's book for Cartwheel Books (a Scholastic Imprint), Together, illustrated by Jennifer Gwynne Oliver, and has a new book coming out this year with Scholastic, The Sound of Kwanzaa, illustrated by Lisa Cohen. Dimitrea enjoys visiting schools and libraries to share her stories with children. She lives in New York City with her two daughters.