One day, young Kamau and his grandmother ZuZu wake up to find themselves on the moon. Kamau doesn’t remember Back Home, but Grandma ZuZu does, and she misses it terribly.
Together, through cloth scraps and dance, letters, and song, Kamau and ZuZu find a way to make a new life for themselves in this strange land: a new life that is not only rooted in the stories, memories, and traditions that ZuZu always carries with her but which also lovingly reaches out across the vast expanse of space to connect and communicate with the family from which they’ve been separated.
Acclaimed poet Aracelis Girmay and illustrator Diana Ejaita together weave a powerful story inspired by the African diaspora, in which—despite the shock of being uprooted into this alien world, without being given any choice or explanation, and the sorrow that comes from the unfathomable distance separating them from their beloved community—Kamau and ZuZu find a way to live, as people do.
Grades 1-4, 6-9 years.
Enchanted Lion, 2024, hardcover, 9.35 x 10.4 inches, 60 pages.
