Kamau and ZuZu Find a Way
A stirring story of African diaspora, resourcefulness, and intergenerational love by National Book Critics Circle Award finalist and renowned poet Aracelis Girmay, and acclaimed illustrator Diana Ejaita.
One of Maria Popova's Marginalian Favorites of 2024!
A Best Book of 2024, Center for the Study of Multicultural Literature!
An Academy of American Poets Featured Fall Book for Young Readers!
One of PW’s “12 Children’s Books by Black Authors to Read in 2024!”
A Bookstagang Best of 2024 Picture Book Selection, for Best Illustration!
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 which 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.
Aracelis Girmay is a poet, mother, teacher, and editor. She is the author of three books of poems and is the editor of How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton. For her poetry, she was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Hurston/Wright Award, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. She is on the editorial board of the African Poetry Book Fund.
Diana Ejaita (Olu and Greta, A Day in the Sun) works as an illustrator and textile designer in Berlin. What sets her illustrations apart is a combination of dramatically contrasting areas of black and white with soft patterns and textures that create images that betray the strength of femininity. Born in Cremona, with Nigerian origins, her aesthetic pays homage to her lineage.