Mariama: Different But Just the Same

First-time author Cornelles introduces Mariama, a girl from an unnamed African country who emigrates to another nation. Some things are new and strange (“the kids were nearly as white as the African moon that shone over the village where she used to live”), and some things are difficult (“And what am I supposed to talk to them about?” Mariama asks her mother. “Everything’s different here, but they think I’m the one that’s different”). Yet with help from newfound friends Hugo and Paula, she finds a place for herself in her new school and country. Uyá’s (Snowbound Secrets) loose, folk-style paintings show Mariama wondering at the highways in her new city (“long, grey tongues”), then putting a book over her head, overwhelmed with the task of learning another language. Although the story is honest about Mariama’s ambivalence and loss—it ends as her thoughts turn to her beloved grandmother back in Africa—some heavy-handedness (“Black or white, Mariama, Hugo, and Paula were all children.... who wanted to play and laugh”) may limit the story’s use to discussions about bridging cultural and racial divides. Ages 3–5. (Mar.)