FICTION

Indigo Dreaming

by Dinah Johnson (text) & illus. by Anna Cunha
HarperCollins. Oct. 2022. 40p. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9780063080201.
COPY ISBN
PreS-Gr 2–A young girl with brown skin and black hair wonders if somewhere across the ocean is another girl like her. Johnson’s near-rhyming verse is as lulling as the sea: “Every morning at day-clean, when the sun is just about to rise, I pretend that Indigo Beach is mine!” Cunha’s textured soft pastels create a wistful, dreamy atmosphere. Through the girl’s musings readers will learn words and phrases specific to her culture: day-clean, sweetgrass, goobers, Frogmore Stew, Karimba music. The author’s note explains that people who live on the South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida sea islands are called Gullah or GeeChee and descend from Sierra Leone. Relative isolation has preserved their culture and language and they still have much in common with their ancestors today.
VERDICT A gorgeous book that will touch every child’s longing to connect with someone “out there” who is like them.
Reviewed by Hillary Perelyubskiy , Sep 30, 2022

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