Jillian Christmas

Amagic shell helps a Black Caribbean immigrant child connect with her ancestors.

Pigeon Pea, a young girl with medium-brown skin and an Afro, watches her parents and aunts (cued as a lesbian couple) preparing roti and callaloo (Caribbean culinary staples) and asks big questions: Who were their ancestors, and what would they say if they were still with them? Aunty bestows her with a magical cowrie shell that “carries the story of our people across sea and distant lands.” The shell’s magic transports Pigeon Pea through time and space, first to Tobago, where she meets her African foremothers and Kalinago forebears and participates in their community rituals, and then to West Africa, where she learns the songs and dances of her ancestral kinfolk, meets the “spirit guides” of her family, and is counseled by Yemoja, the mother of all Orishas, who assures her that “we are always rooting for you! We are with you wherever you are.” Pigeon Pea returns from her journey eager to tell her contemporary family about her enlightening adventure. The final illustration is a perfect ending: Pigeon Pea’s happy family enjoys a meal surrounded by the smiling spirits of their ancestors. Familial love and the joy of self-discovery are affirmed in Christmas’ uplifting narrative. The questionable choice of rhyming text and a lack of perspective in Mungaray’s colorful animation-esque art don’t spoil this special and important story. All characters are Black or Indigenous.

A beautiful and long-overdue picture-book homage to the importance of ancestors in Afro-Caribbean cultures. (glossary) (Picture book. 5-8)

-Kirkus Review… (altro)