My Baby

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Winter travels to Mali with aplomb in this picture book exploration of a traditional textile art. As a child, Nakunte learns from her mother how to create the patterned cloth called b g lan ("Her painting stick goes CLICK-CLICK in and out of the mud paint all day long") worn for special occasions like weddings and funerals, and later, an adult Nakunte keeps the whole village supplied with the beautiful cloth she paints. With the arrival of her own baby imminent, Nakunte gets to work on a b g lan for the little one. Searching out the whitest cloth, she mixes up a mud "black as a starless night" and begins. "Listen, my baby, do you hear the drums that call?" Nakunte says as she paints a drum-shaped border for the cloth; Winter frames the image of Nakunte at work with the same repeating drum pattern. As Nakunte tells her unborn child about the wonders of the world around her, she incorporates elements of each into her cloth. From checks that mimic a leopard's spots to the herringbone pattern of a fish skeleton, the designs slowly fill the b g lan--just in time. "Welcome--my baby!" Winter sets up a sumptuous contrast between the stark black-and-white of the b g lan cloth and the color harmonies of the vivid African setting. And her fascination with artistry--expressed in books about subjects as diverse as Bach, Georgia O'Keeffe and Diego Rivera--expands in this poetic tale that draws an elegant parallel between artistic creation and procreation. Ages 3-6. (Mar.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

From The Critics

Creation forms the thematic core of this graphically exciting picture book. The primary character, Nakunte, a Mali woman pregnant with her first child, is also an artist with words and paint. She first illustrates her village through language. She describes the hot winds she remembers drying her mother's textile painting and the natural materials she assembles for her own painting: a stick from a calabash tree, the whitest cloth at the busy market, the mud from a streambed, and the leaves of a special tree. As Nakunte's baby grows and she tells the child about its world, the bògòlan cloth she designs incorporates the patterns, colors, and shapes she sees. She invites the baby to listen to the sound of the white snake as she paints the serpentine outline and warns the child of the scorpion's sting in drawing a thin band of sharp lines. The leopard's spots become a checkered trim, the fish's bones a spiney outline, the stars and the flowers take form in the cloth. The rhythmic text echoes the cadence of Nakunte's verbal artistry just as Jeannette Winter's visual renderings accent the bògòlan's patterns in each picture's border. Each illustration becomes a game of finding the item about which Nakunte speaks in its various placements throughout the picture. The prismatic intensity of Winter's bold palette set off the dynamic black-and-white designs that characterize Nakunte's work. Winter's stylized paintings invoke a folk art tradition in their use of solid, flat figures, whereas the sharp edges and blocks of vibrant color almost appear to be collage. The book joyfully unifies the artist's creative expression with the sources of her inspiration. 2001, Frances Foster/Farrar Straus Giroux,$16.00. Ages 3 to 6. Reviewer: Cathryn M. Mercier SOURCE: The Five Owls, September/October 2001 (Vol. 16, No. 1)

Children's Literature

A young girl in Mali tells us how she learned from her mother the technique of making bògòlan, a traditional mud-painted cloth. Nakunte, who has become an expert, is preparing to paint a special bògòlan for the baby she is expecting "when the rains come." She gathers the best mud, sticks and leaves. She is inspired by the sights, the sounds and the smells around her, which she describes to the baby inside as she works. At last, the bògòlan is finished, in time to wrap the baby in love. From the back of the jacket/cover we can see the black-and-white abstract symbols used on the traditional fabrics. Inside, in full-page scenes often framed with stripes of bògòlan patterns, Winter uses flat colors¾bright violets, oranges and turquoise¾to create simplified pictures of the characters and actions. There are relatively few details other than the patterns on clothes and on animals which are interpreted through the symbols on the cloth. Even the raindrops are painted as patterns. This satisfyingly happy story connects child-rearing and a traditional but fascinating and little-known craft. 2001, Frances Foster Books/Farrar Straus Giroux, $16.00. Ages 4 to 8. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz

School Library Journal

K-Gr 3-An introduction to a fascinating artistic tradition from Mali. The native craft of a mud-painted cloth called b g lan forms the basis for the story about a young girl named Nakunte Diarra. Her life is depicted through the stages of her creative development in learning to make the prized b g lan. As a youngster, she learns conventional painting methods from her mother. Over time, she grows in her artistry until she is much sought after by the village for cloths for weddings, births, and funerals. The years march on and in due time, Nakunte marries and conceives a child. In preparation for her infant's birth, she decorates her baby's b g lan, and describes her inspirations from nature to her unborn child. She tells of the white snake, the leopard, the scorpion, crocodile, and the calabash flower. The designs inspired by the world around the young woman appear in charming frames surrounding each wonder as she details its uniqueness. Winter's trademark folk-art style distinguished by simple forms and a colorful palette serves the subject and the landscape of this African village well.-Rosalyn Pierini, San Luis Obispo City-County Library, CA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.