K-Gr 2—Nana Akua bears the ritual marks of her family back home in West Africa, and her loving granddaughter
finds a way to bridge the reactions of others to these raised scars in a story soaked with symbols and grace. A
generous look at acknowledging and celebrating differences.

An open-hearted tribute to children with immigrant parents or grandparents.

Next Monday is Grandparents Day, and Zura, a brown-skinned girl of African descent, has a problem. Though excited, Zura worries about her classmates’ responses to Nana Akua, who has facial markings—a tradition of the Akan people of Ghana that identifies their tribal family. Sometimes in public, people have made negative comments and stared. When Zura tells Nana Akua her worries at home, Nana pulls out Zura’s favorite quilt, adorned with West African Adinkra symbols, and makes a plan to help Zura’s classmates understand her facial markings. On Grandparents Day, Nana and Zura wear African dresses, and Nana explains her markings, comparing them to tattoos. She invites the children to choose an Adinkra from the quilt, each of which has a meaning (explained on the endpapers), and they and their grandparents enjoy the personal introduction to Adinkras Nana gives them. Harrison contributes spectacular collage art that surrounds Zura’s family with colors, patterns, and objects, such as an African drum, pottery, art, and Black dolls, that connect them with West Africa. Harrison also illustrates a full page of Nana Akua’s face, gazing directly at readers. Her brown skin, full lips, gray eyebrows, tufts of gray hair at the edges of her head wrap, and her gorgeous purple, patterned fabrics all invite readers to see Nana Akua.

A wonderful springboard for cross-cultural understanding conveyed through deeply symbolic art. (glossary, sources, acknowledgements)

A gently paced, kind story about dealing with unfamiliar traditions across generations and cultures. Introduces some traditional symbols from Ghana, with a useful glossary for pronunciation and understanding. ( )

Although Zura loves her Nana Akua, she is anxious about bringing her to Grandparents Day at her school in this heartwarming picture-book, worried that someone might comment upon her grandmother's facial markings, or say mean things. Nana Akua knows what to do however, bringing along Zura's special quilt, which contains many of the Adinkra symbols of their Ashanti heritage. Explaining to the children in Zura's class that her facial markings were a gift from her parents, and have a specific meaning, she invites them to choose a symbol themselves, from the quilt, and she paints it on their faces...

Having greatly enjoyed illustrator April Harrison's work in Patricia C. McKissack's What Is Given from the Heart, I was excited to learn that she had another picture-book out, and I picked up Nana Akua Goes to School with some anticipation. I was certainly not disappointed, from an aesthetic perspective, finding the mixed-media collage illustrations here lovely. The story from author Tricia Elam Walker was also appealing, and I particularly liked the fact that Nana Akua decided to share her cultural heritage by inviting others to partake of it, however briefly. In this day of acrimonious (and often vapid) discussions of things like "cultural appropriation," it's good to see a story emphasizing the idea of culture as something meant to be shared. I also liked the Adinkra symbols themselves, finding them quite fascinating. As someone interested in languages and writing systems, they struck me as a kind of proto-pictograph system, and I found myself wondering whether they might not have evolved into a more complex and complete writing system, if history had fallen out differently, and Ghanaians and other West Africans hadn't adopted the Latin alphabet. In any case, this was a charming picture-book, one with an engaging story about family and culture, and beautiful illustrations. Recommended to picture-book readers seeking stories about grandparents, cultural difference, and cultural sharing. ( )

This book is about a girl named Zura. At Zura's school they are hosting grandparents day and Zura loves her grandma Akua, but she is worried the other kids will be scared of her appearance. Grandma Akua decides to bring along some tools to help her explain her appearance to make the other kids comfortable. This book is a great lesson to students to never be ashamed of your culture or where your family comes from. ( )