The Horn Book Guide

PICTURE BOOKS

Danticat, Edwidge

Mama's Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation

32 pp. | Dial | September, 2015 | Trade ISBN 978-0-525-42809-1 $17.99

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Leslie Staub. In this gentle story, Haitian American Saya's mother is incarcerated because she has no papers. Danticat's direct, resonant prose doesn't shy away from the realities--telling of the loneliness of missing your mother and the trauma of saying goodbye at the detention facility. Staub's naive-style oil paintings keep the focus on the child; the larger issue of the plight of refugees and immigrants makes the story universal.

Reviewer: Robin L. Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2015