Amadi's Snowman: A Story of Reading

by Katia Novet Saint-Lot

Book Overview

When Amadi disobeys his mother and runs off to the market instead of sticking around for a reading lesson, he encounters a much-admired older boy secretly reading at a book stall. Crowding himself in among the stacks of books, Amadi becomes intrigued by a storybook with pictures of a strange white creature with a carrot for a nose. Over the course of a typical mischievous day, unable to shake his questions about the snowman, Amadi discovers the vast...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0884482987
• ISBN13: 9780884482987
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Tilbury House Publishers
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 9.4" x 10.4"
• Age Range: 5 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Grades 1 to 3

Customer Reviews

How Stories Can Widen Our World

One of my standard rants is about books set in Africa that don't name a particular culture or language. AMADI'S SNOWMAN is not one of those irritating stories. From the first sentence, we are taken to a particular village where we meet the one-and-only Amadi, a self-described "Igbo man of Nigeria." In the first scene, our hero is "crouched in the shrubs, stalking a red-headed lizard." Talk about evoking a sense of place and conveying character with a single economical phrase! Understandably, Amadi is wondering why in the world he would need to read if he plans on being a businessman like his father. But when he glimpses a snowman in an older boy's book, he's snared by curiosity about this foreign carrot-nosed creation and decides to learn to read. Novet Saint-Lot has written a universal story about the power of literacy without losing sight of the delightful particulars of one boy's life. Dimitrea Tokumbo, whose father was raised in Nigeria, widens our world with bright and beautiful illustrations. I was reminded of Plato's cave allegory as I read Amadi's Snowman, because by the end I found myself completely smitten with Mitali's Amadi. And so will you.

Wonderful book!

This is a wonderful children's story. Amadi wants to grow up and become a business man. It's something he is already familiar with. He knows the market place. He doesn't need to learn to read. Until the day when a photo catches his eye and peaks his curiousity. What is it? If he could read, maybe the book would tell him. The story will show children how the joy of reading can take them to new worlds and places that they've never been to before. The illustrations are fun and delightful. The warm colors of the African village are inviting. Children will love this book. Buy it!

Amadi's Snowman

For those of us who read in the same way that we breathe, sometimes it's easy to take that activity for granted. We forget the inherent magic that comes from the printed word floating from the page into an imagination and the excitement that comes when that flow first occurs. When a book reminds us of how special it was to learn to read, and how much we once yearned to know how to do that, that book is special. Amadi's Snowman by Katia Novet Saint-Lot and illustrated by Dimitrea Tokunbo is one of those books that gives us back the hunger and eagerness that we once had for learning to read. A short story in the form of a picture book--and a beautiful one at that!--this book gave me chills as I read it, and when I finished the last jubilant page, I immediately went back to the beginning and read it again. This is one of those remarkable books that is meant for all ages, where the pictures and the text come together seamlessly in a glowing, perfectly blended, and wonderful world of its own. I love this book and can't wait to share it with (and give it to) other people who will love it just as much as I do. Thank you, Katia, Dimitrea, and Amadi!

Profound, a fantastic gift book.

The subject matter of literacy - of wanting to read - is heavy. Saint-Lot writes beautifully, her Amadi is genuine, and the little readers ends up cheering Amadi on to feel the same zing as they do, that "yes, books are amazing" feeling. He is so much like every child; sometimes silly, sometimes thoughtful. Children connect to Amadi, immediately. Little readers love to follow him through his day. He falls in love with a book, as children have since forever. They feel powerful that reading is something they are learning (or have learned) to do, they want to see how Amadi feels about learning to read. I bought this for all the children in my life, and gift them out as birthdays and holidays come around. They uniformly give "thumbs up" to Amadi's Snowman.

Wonderful story!

Katia Novet Saint-Lot's beautiful picture book tells the story of a proud, young Igbo man, Amadi, who plans to grow up and be a businessman. His mother wants him to learn to read, but Amadi sees no need for reading. He's already good with numbers - what would he need reading for? Until he catches sight of something in a book that needs to be explained. Something that forces his imagination to stretch to new limits. Katia's effortless prose, along with the colorful illustrations of Dimitrea Tokunbo, create beautiful imagery of hot Nigeria where Amadi lives and at the same time convincingly protrays the engima of snow. Amadi's Snowman is a delightful trip to another part of the world yet rings with familiarity as we fondly remember the magic and power of learning to read.