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24 pp.
| Barefoot |
October, 2023 |
TradeISBN 9798888590119$9.99
(3)
PSOur World series.
Illustrated by
Netsanet Tesfay.
In this slice-of-life board book, a young dark-skinned girl and her father rise to the promise of a new day in Ethiopia, break bread (literally — they eat chechebsa, an Ethiopian torn flatbread), then spend a pleasant day at Entoto Natural Park, where horse-riding and hide-and-seek are on the agenda. The doting pair returns home to enjoy dinner with Mom and the girl’s older brother, and when it’s slumbertime, Dad looks happy as a clam reading his daughter a bedtime story. Habtemariam’s characters and Tesfay’s depiction (colorful childlike illustrations offer interesting details) of the city of Addis Ababa exude bonhomie. Ethiopian social practices (like eating with one’s hands from a communal plate and the Habesha coffee ceremony) are casually woven into the story. A pictorial glossary of Amharic words concludes this winsome offering.