Gugu's house

Title:

Gugu's house

Author:

Summary:

Kukamba loves helping her grandmother decorate her mud home in a dusty Zimbabwe village, but when the annual rains partially destroy all her art work, Kukamba learns to see the goodness of the rains.

Physical Description:

31 p. : col. ill. ; 27 cm.

Genre:

Picture books.

Subject Term:

Grandmothers -- Fiction.

Artists -- Fiction.

Rain and rainfall -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Zimbabwe -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Clarion Books,

Publication Date:

2001

ISBN:

9780618003891

Publication Information:

New York : Clarion Books, 2001.

Call Number:

P STOCK

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607001463820	Picture Books	STOCK	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Kukamba loves to visit her grandmother, Gugu. Though the village where Gugu lives is dry and dusty, her house is big and sprawling and unlike any other. The courtyard and walls are decorated with beautiful paintings and clay animals, all made by Gugu herself. Best of all, when Kukamba visits, she gets to help shape and paint some of the wonderful zebras, elephants, and birds that Gugu is always adding to the house. When the heavy rains come and her grandmother's showpieces are destroyed, Kukamba is crushed. But the Gugu helps her see that an ending can also be a beginning, and art is not the only beauty the world has to offer. Set in the grassy plains of Zimbabwe and gracefully illustrated in watercolors, GUGU'S HOUSE is a unique tribute to the spirit of creativity and the immutable cycles of nature.

Author Notes

Catherine Stock was born in Stockholm, Sweden on November 26, 1952. She received a bachelor's degree in fine art from the University of Cape Town, a post graduate certificate in education from the University of London, and a master's degree in communications science from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. After she worked as an art director for several publishing houses including Putnam, Coward McCann, Atheneum, and Clarion for four years, she decided to become a freelance illustrator and write children's books. She illustrated numerous books including Galimoto by Karen Lynne Williams, By the Dawn's Early Light by Karen Ackerman, and Doll Baby by Eve Bunting. She has also written and illustrated several books including A Very Important Day, Where Are You Going Manyoni?, Sophie's Bucket, and Island Summer.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (1)

School Library Journal Review

K-Gr 2-A warm, intergenerational story set in Zimbabwe. Kukamba travels from her home in the city to visit her grandmother in her village. Gugu has painted her compound with vivid colors and patterns, and has sculpted many animals including a larger-than-life zebra. She is an artist and she shares her secrets of mixing the colors for paint; there is red in the riverbed clay, white in the ash from the fire, and green in cattle dung. Kukamba discovers that she, too, has an artistic flair and the two create beautiful paintings together. Gugu's house is a gathering place for the villagers, and since the area has been experiencing a long drought, her stories add a welcome dose of humor to their somber moods. The rains finally come and the village is overjoyed. Kukamba is upset because the paintings and sculptures have all washed away, but Gugu shows her that nature has emerged with her own colors after the rain. The mood of the text is perfectly mirrored in the watercolor illustrations. The concern and despair over the drought give way to the sheer joy in the rains and the burst of color at the end. This will be a wonderful read-aloud, particularly when paired with Ifeoma Onyefulu's Grandfather's Work (Millbrook, 1998), or useful as a literature tie-in to a lesson on Africa.-Genevieve Ceraldi, New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Reviews (1)

School Library Journal Review