Kamau & Zuzu Find a Way – Perfect Picture Book Friday – Jilanne Hoffmann

I’m turning this week to a book that lives outside of the traditional picture book three-act structure. It’s a style that I would call contemporary folklore.

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The cover image hints that the story exists within an unusual space, one that feels strange and unsettling. But a plant is growing, and might that plant be a form of hope?

Nobody knows how it happened.
Mama Zuzu says she woke up one morning,
and she and her grandchild were on the moon.
"I must have fallen asleep because I woke up
right here in my chair, a book at my feet,
and you warm against my belly."

We are definitely within the realm of metaphor. The moon is a strange, potentially hostile environment. But being a picture book, this opening feels more strange and wondrous than threatening.

Kamau, being a young child, doesn’t remember where he came from, but Mama Zuzu (the child’s grandmother) does. And she realizes that it will “take time to make a home for her grandchild out of this new place.”

To begin, she observed. She studied the light
and touched her hand gently to the ground.
"Hello, there, Sister," she said.
Then she dug rows into the moon crust and began
to plant. First, she planted a kernel of corn and
a clothespin that was still in her apron. Another day,
she planted the photograph of her mother and
a square of cloth that she always kept tucked inside
her book.
With time, from those rows,
all kinds of things grew.

The first sentence on this spread offers up an example of what an immigrant might do upon arrival to a new country. Observe. Take stock of everything that’s going on. Recognize how this new place may be strange, but then find something familiar even in its strangeness. And then begin to make this place their own, using remnants of what they’ve brought with them. Over time, those efforts bring forth new growth, now fruits, a melange of the past and the present.

Everyday objects that have been planted grow new objects, unexpected ones. At times tears flow, but music also plays if you plant songs and listen. And with music comes dancing and feelings of happiness and sadness and “all kinds of feelings around and in between.”

We learn that the people back home miss Mama Zuzu and Kamau and try to find them, with no luck. Then a letter from Kamau arrives in his village, and everyone rejoices that “They are all right! They have sent word!”

But how do you send a message back to the moon? Moonlight, sand, and water hold the answer.

Mama Zuzu and Kamau never return home, although she believes someday they will. In the meantime, Kamau soaks up Mama Zuzu’s “history of his world in tiny swallows.” She loves him so “mightily that he could feel his whole family’s love coming through.”

She also tells him that “…we will have to find a way to live, as people do.” But it’s not just getting by. To Kamau’s ears, “the way she said ‘live’ always filled Kamau’s blood up with the sun.” Such a beautiful way to say that they will thrive. Toward the end, Mama Zuzu says, “You [Kamau] are outside the realm of what anyone thought could be.” Kamau is transforming into a different being. He is living, becoming a different person in this different space, as people do.

The story feels mythological in its truth, and is well-matched to the jewel and earth-toned illustrations on a black background. The author’s dedication adds another layer of insight into the story:

To people everywhere in the diaspora.
To our lost.
To the way-finders,
the refuge-makers—
flowering all around us, still.

Activities:

Pair this book with WISHES by Muon Thi Van, illustrated by Victo Ngai. How are the two stories different/similar? Who is the narrator in each story? How does it make the stories different?

Make a collage on black paper, using cut paper cutouts like the shapes in the book and white crayon.

Pick a page from the book that has a significant amount of text and copy the text onto a page. Black out words from the text to make your own blackout poem.

Title: Kamau & Zuzu Find a Way

Author: Aracelis Girmay

Illustrator: Diana Ejaita

Publisher: Enchanted Lion, 2024

Ages: Elementary school

Themes: immigration, family, resilience

For more perfect picture book recommendations, please visit Susanna Hill’s website.