There is a lot of news these days about school attendance dropping off in America. Since COVID there seems to be a change in how some families value the education their children would be receiving. Administrators struggle to find ways to bring the children back and to help the parents understand how what their children would learn in elementary school gives them the ability to climb up to middle school and then on to high school and college where they get the skills to get a good job for the rest of their lives.
So, when you open THE BOY WHO READ NEWSPAPERS and you meet Wambua who was born in the rainy season in Kenya you really have no idea what school means to him and his family. This boy, surrounded by "magniificent purple jacaranda blooms, ... and chirpping yellow weaver birds with shimeriing feathers" is far from the urban, suburban and rural spaces in the United States. Yet, from the very beginning he wanted to learn and he wanted to read.
The voice of Wambua who soon earns his second name, James, and the illustrations his world are an instant invitation to step into his life and his family. You are transported to Kenya on an ordinary day and the feeling you get from James is this is how we live, it's wonderful, we can take care of ourselves on our subsistence farm and I want you to come and see what our part of the world is like.
The eagerness of James to learn streams out of the pages. You can feel how much he wants to learn. It's so important to him and there is light in each scene which communicates even more of the goodness and determination James has to make life better through education.
The years go by and we go along with James as he takes tests that will open or close doors for him to keep learning. His family is behind him and they problem-solve and find ways so he can keep going to school and eventually he is accepted to the University of Nairobi where he walks into the first library he has ever seen.
Most American schools have libraries. Most American students expect them to be there. Following along on the path James takes to University our American listeners/readers may be surprised to discover that not everyone has that luxury. Some children walk 5 kilometers a day to school and then back. They don't have backpacks and raincoats and boots but that doesn't stop them from going to school because they understand deeply what an education can give them. It can give them a future.
James has gone on to create a Learning Resource Center which in 2022, powered by solar-energy, the doors opened wo a collection of more than 30,000 books.
When you read this inspiring story you really feel you are walking alongside James on his journey. I would love to see this book in every school library, being read aloud to American students who may not feel the passion James has for his education. It's always a jolt when you find out that everyone doesn't live the way you do. That everyone does not think the way you do. That some children around the world fight to get into middle school and high school. It's a privilege not a right.
I highly recommend this informative, uplifting biography that opens our eyes to lives and hopes and dreams in part of the world we may never see.
32 pages 9798218540135 Ages 6-10
Keywords: biography, Africa, African author, daily life, education, perseverance, values, literacy, reading, dreams, school, overcoming obstacles, library, 6 year old, 7 year old, 8 year old, 9 year old, 10 year old
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The Boy Who Read Newspapers is an inspiring story based on the true life of author James Musyoka and illustrated by acclaimed artist, Julia Cairns.
James grew up in rural Kenya where few books were available. Eager to learn, James found anything he could to practice reading even the old newspapers used to wrap goat meat. Daily he walked barefoot for miles to school and at home he studied by lantern. His dream to someday see a library was realized and more. James studied hard, graduated from university, and helped start a mobile library that now makes books available for children in Kenya.
James Musyoka is the cofounder and executive director for Kenya Connect. He has more than twenty years of experience in community work and helping to empower communities through the power of education. James is a graduate of the University of Nairobi with a bachelor of arts in anthropology. He was awarded a Paul Harris Rotary Fellowship Award by the Sunshine Coast-Sechelt Rotary Club in British Columbia. He is a proud father of three daughters and his hobbies include reading, farming, playing dominoes, geocaching traveling and exploring new cuisines.---from The People's Book Bookstore
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
