African Archives - Page 5 of 8

Of Beetles and Angels: A Boy’s Remarkable Journey from a Refugee Camp to Harvard by Mawi Asgedom [in Library Journal]

25 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in African, Audio, Black/African American, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonfiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

At 4, Mawi Asgedom fled the civil war cleaving Eritrea and Ethiopia, spending three years in a Sudanese refugee camp. In 1983, assisted by World Relief, the family settled in a Chicago suburb. Their new life wasn't easy: Asgedom's father, once a respected community leader and...

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi [in Library Journal]

03 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Black/African American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW Two hundred fifty years ago in what is modern-day Ghana, two half-sisters are each given a special stone by their mother. Effia marries an Englishman and lives in the ignominiously named Castle, the center of the African Gold Coast slavery trade. Esi is temporarily...

Incarceration Nations by Baz Dreisinger [in Library Journal]

18 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Black/African American, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, South American, Southeast Asian

“No one said this global journey would be smooth,” writes Baz Dreisinger with controlled understatement. Covering two years and nine countries in her pilgrimage to prisons worldwide, Dreisinger – a self-described “white English professor specializing in African-American cultural studies,” as well as prison educator and criminal justice...

And After Many Days by Jowhor Ile [in Library Journal]

04 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW For the rest of his life, Ajie would be known as the last person to have seen Paul, the family’s exemplary, exceptional firstborn. On a Monday afternoon during Nigeria’s 1995 rainy season, 17-year-old Paul announces he’s visiting a friend in the next compound; he...

Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala [in Library Journal]

03 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Fiction, Repost

Originally published in 2004, then 23-year-old Uzodinma Iweala’s debut novel – which began as the author's Harvard senior thesis under the direction of Jamaica Kincaid – reappears 11 years later in two additional incarnations: as an acclaimed film directed by Cory Fukunaga and this mesmerizing...

The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma [in Library Journal]

29 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Fiction, Repost, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW "My brothers and I became fishermen in January of 1996 after our father moved out of Akure, a town in the west of Nigeria, where we had lived together all our lives," explains nine-year-old Benjamin. With Father's strict daily oversight missing and Mother busy with...

Today Is the Day by Eric Walters, Illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes

26 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in African, Canadian, Children/Picture Books, Nonfiction

Today is the third title by Canadians Eric Walters and Eugenie Fernandes that captures real-life events from Walters' The Creation of Hope complex in Kenya. Together, Walters and Fernandes have become quite the dynamic duo in developing an effective series showcasing the inspiring, courageous stories of resilient, caring children...

I’m New Here by Anne Sibley O’Brien

07 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in African, Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Korean, Korean American, Latina/o/x

Meet Maria, Jin, and Fatimah. They're new – not only to their classroom, but to the language, culture, and country that is our United States. Maria, who left behind an unnamed Spanish-speaking nation, longs for the constant conversations with her friends when their "voices flowed like water and flew...

Discover WeNeedDiverseBooks with Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda’s I Will Always Write Back

11 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in African, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, WeNeedDiverseBooks, WNDB.SummerReadingSeries2015, Young Adult Readers

I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda with Liz Welch

21 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in African, Audio, Memoir, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers

"I was a typical twelve-year-old girl, far more interested in what I should wear to school than what I might learn there," co-author Caitlin Stoicsitz (as she was named then) introduces her 1997 self. "I assumed most kids, regardless of where they lived, had lives...

The Red Bicycle: The Extraordinary Story of One Ordinary Bicycle by Jude Isabella, illustrated by Simone Shin

15 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in African, Canadian, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Korean American

For two years, young Leo has worked hard to pay for his bicycle, which he affectionately names Big Red. As rewarding as the boy-and-his-bike relationship has been, Leo is still growing ...

The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud, translated by John Cullen [in Christian Science Monitor]

04 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Arab, European, Fiction, French, Repost, Translation

The Meursault Investigation cleverly builds on The Stranger by Camus In a New Yorker interview this March, Algerian journalist Kamel Daoud spoke of reading the iconic 1942 classic, The Stranger by Albert Camus – in which a man arbitrarily commits murder and is tried and sentenced...

Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda by J.P. Stassen, translated by Alexis Siegel

17 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, European, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Translation, Young Adult Readers

In Latin, Deo gratias, means 'thanks be to God.' And yet in Belgian graphic artist/author J.P. Stassen’s arresting title of the same name, gratitude and God have all but disappeared. The titular Deogratias here was once a teenage boy – mischievous, a little desperate, in love with...

Hope Springs by Eric Walters, illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes

17 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in African, Canadian, Children/Picture Books, Nonfiction

"As the biggest, [Boniface] had to care for the littlest." He's one of the older boys living in a Kenyan orphanage, known for his gentleness and patience. "[A]ll the children in the orphanage were like a family." On one of their outings to fetch water at...

In the Body of the World by Eve Ensler

11 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

To not stick this one in your ears would be such the missed opportunity. At just over four hours, this is undoubtedly longer than your usual theater performance, but with Eve Ensler herself so passionately narrating, her memoir transforms into a spectacular aural extravaganza. At 57, the woman...

A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

10 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Chinese American, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, South Asian, Southeast Asian, Young Adult Readers

A fatally injured 9-year-old girl, a third-grade boy labelled by teachers as "‘mentally retarded,’" a restless doctor burnt out from overwork in refugee camps, are saving the world. Rachel Beckwith didn't survive a highway collision, but her ninth birthday wish to raise $300 to build a faraway...

Running with the Kenyans: Discovering the Secrets of the Fastest People on Earth by Adharanand Finn

06 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, British, Memoir, Nonfiction

"In 1975 ...

Lost Girl Found by Leah Bassoff and Laura DeLuca

25 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in African, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

Not quite a teenager, Poni loses her 12-year-old best friend in violent increments: to too-early forced marriage, three failed suicide attempts, and finally to childbirth long before her natural time. Poni – and her fiercely supportive mother – are determined that Poni will somehow stay in school...

Bingo’s Run by James A. Levine

19 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

If, like me, you have trouble with accents, dialects, or unfamiliar vernacular, choose audible here. Narrator Peter Macon couldn't be smoother and clearer: I couldn't figure out "meejit" on the page, but in Macon's voice, no problem (turns out I'm just the "eejit" who can't understand 'midget,'...

Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill

10 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, African, Audio, Black/African American, Canadian, Fiction

Let's start with the bottom line: read this. [Or listen – narrator Adenrele Ojo is superb.] I guarantee this stupendously epic, unforgettably affecting story of Aminata Diallo will haunt you long after you finish. Born in 1745, Aminata is 11 when she's violently abducted from her...

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