#paperback #folktale #african #kids #children #childrensbook #livingbook #fable #tales #westafrica


Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Oregon

A West African Folk Tale

Chinye lives with her cruel stepmother and lazy stepsister, but her life changes for the better when a mysterious old woman in the forest directs her to a magic gourd.

Chinye

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Monica Edinger

New York

A Child of the Amistad

"A remarkable story of resilience, faith, and hope." -- School Library Journal (starred review)

Inspired by a true account, here is the compelling story of a child who arrives in America on the slave ship Amistad--and eventually makes her way home to Africa. Narrated in a remarkable first-person voice, this fictionalized book of memories of a real-life figure retells history through the eyes of a child. Lush, full-color illustrations by Robert Byrd, plus archival photographs and documents, bring an extraordinary journey to life.

Africa Is My Home

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Harold Courlander

George Herzog

Collection of traditional stories from West Africa 

And Other West African Stories

17 stories make up this unique collection of folktales brought to life by illustrations throughout the text. "The stories of West Africa are about men and animals, about kings, warriors, and hunters. They tell about clever people and stupid people, about good ones and bad ones, about how things and animals got to be how they are. Sometimes they are just tall tales. There are stories about Frog, Rabbit, Turtle, Guinea Fowl, and all the other animals that West Africans know. Some of the stories make you think. Some make you laugh. Here are some of the stories of the people of the forests, the seacoast, the hills, and the plains. The people of West Africa give them to you." A NEWBERY HONOR BOOK (1948)

The Cow-Tail Switch

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Wonderful story about a missionary family in Liberia. #paperback #nonfiction #missionaries #christian #liberia #westafrica #rains #relationships #survival #helping

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Missouri

Tears of the Rain

Paul Harris

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Virginia

A Novel

One man's search for the truth in war-torn Sierra Leone, where the rules of civilized society don't apply...

Journalist Danny Kellerman receives an urgent letter from an ex-lover in Sierra Leone, where he once was a war correspondent. But it's already too late; she's been murdered in a roadside robbery. Danny returns to Freetown, where his investigation uncovers secrets that shed a shocking light on the woman he though he knew-and reveals a hidden truth that could destroy those in power. Trapped in the heart of a dangerous nation where he can trust no one, Danny is soon forced to choose between his integrity and the devastating consequences of speaking the truth.

Written with gritty and haunting realism and based on the author's first-hand experiences as a war correspondent in Africa, The Secret Keeper is a taut and powerful debut that reader's won't want to miss.

The Secret Keeper

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Doyin Richards

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Massachusetts

A Story of Immigration and Inspiration

A picture book about immigration, Watch Me is based on the author's own story. Joe came to America from Africa when he was young. He worked hard in school, made friends, and embraced his new home. Like so many immigrants before and after him, Joe succeeded when many thought he would fail. In telling the story of how his father came to America, Doyin Richards tells the story of many immigrants, and opens the experience up to readers of all backgrounds. Here is a moving and empowering story of how many different people, from different places, make us great. Acclaimed artist Joe Cepeda brings the story to life with beautiful paintings, full of heart.

Watch Me

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Library book, with name written on inside front cover, a ink stamp on first page and very little spotting. Cover has creases and scratches. 

Florida

John Newton Out of the Depths 

Uzodinma Iweala

Wisconsin

The harrowing, utterly original debut novel by Uzodinma Iweala about the life of a child soldier in a war-torn African country--now a critically-acclaimed Netflix original film directed by Cary Fukunaga (True Detective) and starring Idris Elba (Mandela, The Wire).

As civil war rages in an unnamed West-African nation, Agu, the school-aged protagonist of this stunning debut novel, is recruited into a unit of guerilla fighters. Haunted by his father's own death at the hands of militants, which he fled just before witnessing, Agu is vulnerable to the dangerous yet paternal nature of his new commander.

While the war rages on, Agu becomes increasingly divorced from the life he had known before the conflict started--a life of school friends, church services, and time with his family, still intact. As he vividly recalls these sunnier times, his daily reality continues to spin further downward into inexplicable brutality, primal fear, and loss of selfhood. In a powerful, strikingly original voice, Uzodinma Iweala leads the reader through the random travels, betrayals, and violence that mark Agu's new community. Electrifying and engrossing, Beasts of No Nation announces the arrival of an extraordinary new writer.

Beasts of No Nation

adf93a12-efa8-45fd-8b99-689be7bdc613-1

Sarah Erdman

Please look at photos carefully 

No page marks
Amazing like new condition
Barnes and Noble discount sticker attached to dust jacket 

Feel free to message with any questions and ask about bundles

Nonsmoking home 
Ships fast with care

New Hampshire

Two Years in the Heart of an African Village

A Peace Corps worker offers a fascinating portrayal of an African village that stands on the brink of modernity, caught between ancient superstitions and the era of the cell phone as they struggle with AIDS and other life-threatening problems. 17,500 first printing.

Nine Hills to Nambonkaha

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Houghton Mifflin Company

South Carolina

Adapted from a West African Folktale

The Singing Man

e8cdfec3-40e1-47d0-b0b7-e20d836c8b90-0

Bernice L. McFadden

Excellent condition. Signed by the author. Nice clean copy

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

Louisiana

A young woman must learn to love and trust again after experiencing the brutality of ritual servitude in West Africa.

Praise Song for the Butterflies

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South Dakota

In Sierra Leone

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Maryland

The harrowing, utterly original debut novel by Uzodinma Iweala about the life of a child soldier in a war-torn African country—now a critically-acclaimed Netflix original film directed by Cary Fukunaga (True Detective) and starring Idris Elba (Mandela, The Wire). As civil war rages in an unnamed West-African nation, Agu, the school-aged protagonist of this stunning debut novel, is recruited into a unit of guerilla fighters. Haunted by his father’s own death at the hands of militants, which he fled just before witnessing, Agu is vulnerable to the dangerous yet paternal nature of his new commander. While the war rages on, Agu becomes increasingly divorced from the life he had known before the conflict started—a life of school friends, church services, and time with his family, still intact. As he vividly recalls these sunnier times, his daily reality continues to spin further downward into inexplicable brutality, primal fear, and loss of selfhood. In a powerful, strikingly original voice, Uzodinma Iweala leads the reader through the random travels, betrayals, and violence that mark Agu’s new community. Electrifying and engrossing, Beasts of No Nation announces the arrival of an extraordinary new writer.

Beasts of No Nation Movie Tie-In

Basil Miller

Kentucky

Heroine of Calabar

The story of the slim Scottish girl who dreamed of being a missionary to Africa.

Mary Slessor

7a587f36-a0b3-4c3e-a45f-73478c0ab65e-0

Trevor R. Getz

Liz Clarke

District of Columbia

A Graphic History

The first of its kind, Abina and the Important Men is a compelling and powerfully illustrated "graphic history" based on an 1876 court transcript of a West African woman named Abina, who was wrongfully enslaved and took her case to court. The book is a microhistory that does much more thansimply depict an event in the past; it uses the power of illustration to convey important themes in world history and to reveal the processes by which history is made.The story of Abina Mansah - a woman "without history" who was wrongfully enslaved, escaped to British-controlled territory, and then took her former master to court - takes place in the complex world of the Gold Coast at the onset of late nineteenth-century colonialism. Slavery becomes a contestedground, as cultural practices collide with an emerging wage economy and British officials turn a blind eye to the presence of underpaid domestic workers in the households of African merchants.The main scenes of the story take place in the courtroom, where Abina strives to convince a series of "important men" - a British judge, two Euro-African attorneys, a wealthy African country "gentleman," and a jury of local leaders - that her rights matter. "Am I free?" Abina inquires. Throughoutboth the court case and the flashbacks that dramatically depict her life in servitude, these men strive to "silence" Abina and to impose their own understandings and meanings upon her. The story seems to conclude with the short-term success of the "important men," as Abina loses her case. But itdoesn't end there: Abina is eventually redeemed. Her testimony is uncovered in the dusty archives by Trevor Getz and, through Liz Clarke's illustrations, becomes a graphic history read by people around the world. In this way, the reader takes an active part in the story along with the illustrator,the author, and Abina herself.Following the graphic history in Part I, Parts II-V provide detailed historical context for the story, a reading guide that reconstructs and deconstructs the methods used to interpret the story, and strategies for using Abina in various classroom settings.Click the following links to see sample pages from the book:a href="http://www.oup.com/us/pdf/highered/30335689/getz1.JPG "Sample page 1/aa href="http://www.oup.com/us/pdf/highered/30335689/getz2.JPG "Sample page 2/a

Abina and the Important Men

9a361f2a-3a27-4450-bfb9-b0ea6c72ce21-1

Zadie Smith

Some wear on the cover but nothing that affects readability 

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR FICTION FINALIST FOR THE L.A. TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR FICTION An ambitious, exuberant novel moving from northwest London to West Africa, from the multi-award-winning author of White Teeth and On Beauty. Two brown girls dream of being dancers—but only one, Tracey, has talent. The other has ideas: about rhythm and time, about black bodies and black music, about what constitutes a tribe, or makes a person truly free. It's a close but complicated childhood friendship that ends abruptly in their early twenties, never to be revisited, but never quite forgotten, either. Dazzlingly energetic and deeply human, Swing Time is a story about friendship and music and stubborn roots, about how we are shaped by these things and how we can survive them.

Swing Time

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Neil Peart

California

Cycling in West Africa

Neil Peart’s travel memoir of thoughts, observations, and experiences as he cycles through West Africa, reveals the subtle, yet powerful writing style that has made him one of rock’s greatest lyricists. As he describes his extraordinary journey and his experiences — from the pains of dysentery, to a confrontation with an armed soldier, to navigating dirt roads off the beaten path — he reveals his own emotional landscape, and along the way, the different “masks” that he discovers he wears. “Cycling is a good way to travel anywhere, but especially in Africa. You are independent and mobile, and yet travel at people speed — fast enough to travel on to another town in the cooler morning hours, but slow enough to meet people: the old farmer at the roadside who raises his hand and says, 'You are welcome,' the tireless women who offer a smile to a passing cyclist, the children whose laughter transcends the humblest home.”

The Masked Rider

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Yaw Agawu-Kakraba

The Restless Crucible

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Ayesha Harruna Attah

Vermont

Twin sisters Hassana and Husseina have always shared their lives.

But after a raid on their village in 1892, the twins are torn apart. Taken in different directions, far from their home in rural West Africa, each sister finds freedom and a new start. Hassana settles in in the city of Accra, where she throws herself into working for political and social change. Husseina travels to Salvador, Brazil, where she becomes immersed in faith, worshipping spirits that bridge the motherland and the new world. Separated by an ocean, they forge new families, ward off dangers, and begin to truly know themselves.

As the twins pursue their separate paths, they remain connected through their shared dreams. But will they ever manage to find each other again?

"Uplifting . . . sizzles with sister-love and magic. What an incredible storyteller!"--Yaba Badoe, author of A Jigsaw of Fire and Stars

The Deep Blue Between

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Katherine Dettwyler

Some edge wear.  Otherwise very clean readable copy. 

Minnesota

Life and Death in West Africa

This personal account by a biocultural anthropologist illuminates important messages involving the sobering aspects of conducting fieldwork among malnourished children in West Africa.

Dancing Skeletons

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Peace Adzo Medie

A witty, moving, and smart debut novel, His Only Wife takes place in a world of men who want their wives to be beautiful, to be good cooks and mothers, to grant their husbands forbearance. And in Afi, we meet a delightful, brave, and relatable heroine who just may break all the rules.

Condition: Good
Library discard stamps. In otherwise excellent condition 

Oklahoma

A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB PICK A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR A Time Magazine Must-Read Book of 2020 One of BuzzFeed's "29 Books We Couldn’t Put Down This Year" A Must-Read Novel: The New York Times Book Review * BuzzFeed * Marie Claire * Parade * Travel + Leisure * Ms. Magazine * Bustle * The Millions * Book Riot * Christian Science Monitor * HelloGiggles “[A] mesmerizing debut novel.” —The New York Times Book Review “A story that kept me tied to the page, told in masterful, seamless prose.” —BuzzFeed “I love this book so much I turned the pages so fast . . . It’s all about the search for independence and being true to yourself and who you really are.” —Reese Witherspoon Afi Tekple is a young seamstress in Ghana. She is smart; she is pretty; and she has been convinced by her mother to marry a man she does not know. Afi knows who he is, of course—Elikem is a wealthy businessman whose mother has chosen Afi in the hopes that she will distract him from his relationship with a woman his family claims is inappropriate. But Afi is not prepared for the shift her life takes when she is moved from her small hometown of Ho to live in Accra, Ghana’s gleaming capital, a place of wealth and sophistication where she has days of nothing to do but cook meals for a man who may or may not show up to eat them. She has agreed to this marriage in order to give her mother the financial security she desperately needs, and so she must see it through. Or maybe not? His Only Wife is a witty, smart, and moving debut novel about a brave young woman traversing the minefield of modern life with its taboos and injustices, living in a world of men who want their wives to be beautiful, to be good cooks and mothers, to be women who respect their husbands and grant them forbearance. And in Afi, Peace Medie has created a delightfully spunky and relatable heroine who just may break all the rules.

His Only Wife

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David Conrad

A New Prose Version

"After existing orally for hundreds of years, Sunjata was written down in the 20th century. David Conrad, who recorded a new version of the epic, has now crafted a prose translation that preserves the oral flavor of live performance. The result is a captivating work of literature that will finally give the story of Sunjata its well-deserved place among the great epics of world literature." --Martin Puchner, Byron and Anita Wien Professor of Drama and of English and Comparative Literature, Harvard University

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Obi Onyefulu; Evie Safarewicz

Chinye

Monica Edinger

Africa Is My Home

Harold Courlander; George Herzog

The Cow-Tail Switch

Ruth Ann Stelfox

Tears of the Rain

Paul Harris

The Secret Keeper

Doyin Richards

Watch Me

John Newton

John Newton Out of the Depths

Uzodinma Iweala

Beasts of No Nation

Sarah Erdman

Nine Hills to Nambonkaha

Angela Shelf Medearis

The Singing Man

Bernice L. McFadden

Praise Song for the Butterflies

Michael Jackson

In Sierra Leone

Uzodinma Iweala

Beasts of No Nation Movie Tie-In

Basil Miller

Mary Slessor

Trevor R. Getz; Liz Clarke

Abina and the Important Men

Zadie Smith

Swing Time

Neil Peart

The Masked Rider

Yaw Agawu-Kakraba

The Restless Crucible

Neil Peart

The Masked Rider

Ayesha Harruna Attah

The Deep Blue Between

Katherine Dettwyler

Dancing Skeletons

Peace Adzo Medie

His Only Wife

David Conrad

Sunjata: a New Prose Version

Mara Kardas-Nelson

We Are Not Able to Live in the Sky