Book Review: African Icons

January 17, 2024 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

It’s a terrible thing that Black History Month so often focuses on the period of slavery onward, as if there was nothing of note happening in Africa during this time or indeed throughout the course of history before colonization.

I know when I was in school we learned about ancient Egypt, but that was about all the African history we learned. Of course there is so much more to know and so many historical figures from all over Africa that we should all spend more time learning about.

African Icons: Ten People Who Shaped History by Tracey Baptiste introduces young readers (and perhaps their teachers/parents) to 10 important Africans they might not have heard of before.

The list includes:

Menes, the first pharaoh of a united Egypt
Merneith, who led the country after her brother’s death and was nearly erased from history
Imhotep, the son of an architect who became a doctor and chief advisor to a pharaoh, and venerated as a god after his death
Aesop, the famous fable writer, who was likely Ethiopian and whose moralistic tales have been passed down for centuries
Hannibal Barca, the general and military strategist who waged war with Rome
Terence, a north African playwright enslaved in Rome, who was freed and educated by a Roman senator who saw what a good storyteller he was
Amanirenas, queen of Kush who battled Rome after they conquered Egypt
Tin Hinan, a leader of a nomadic group who led her people who establish a permanent community in the Sahara Desert (and whose story was considered a legend until her grave was found in 1925)
Mansa Musa, a ruler of Mali who expanded the wealth and size of his nation and is considered the richest person ever to have lived
Queen Idia, who ruled beside her husband in Benin, then raised an army to ensure her favored son would become king after his father’s death

Woven around these stories are essays about the history of Africa more generally, the importance of storytellers and books, and the history and culture that was lost through colonization and enslavement.

These stories would be great to share in a middle school/junior high classroom (they’re all pretty quick reads) as you learn more about African history, or to read at home as a family. These stories are the heritage of Black people everywhere and it’s important for all of us to know more about it.

About the book: 176 pages, paperback. Published 2021 (paperback edition 2024) by Algonquin Young Readers. Suggested retail price $9.99 paper/$14.99 hardcover

Have you read?

Resources for Learning about Squirrels

Did you know that October is Squirrel Awareness Month? I didn’t know we needed more awareness of these little creatures, but let’s take it as a sign to learn more about squirrels!

Let’s start with some fun facts via Kids Konnect: did you know there are five subfamilies and more that 280 species of squirrels? The smallest are pygmy squirrels and the largest, the Bhutan giant flying squirrel, can be longer that 4 feet (1.2 meters).

Tree squirrels can climb down trees so fast because their ankles can rotate 180 degrees, allowing them to grab the tree bark as they go down. While most squirrels don’t survive their first year of life, they can live five to 10 years in the wild and squirrels have been known to live up to 20 years in captivity!

Rhythms of Play has more fun facts and tips for observing squirrels if you want to add some real life nature to your nature study.

We always like to start these collections with life cycle and parts of the animal printables, so let’s grab the squirrel life cycle an parts of a squirrel worksheets from Montessori Nature. (It doesn’t look like these are free any more but they have a whole unit study on squirrels you can buy that includes life cycle and parts activities, characteristics of different kinds of squirrels, a printable poster, information about predators and more.)

Grab the squirrel lapbook printable (free with email address) from Homeschool Share to learn the parts of a squirrel, where they live, what they eat, whether they hibernate and more. There’s also a nut taste test printable, a place for making observations about squirrels, life cycle of an oak tree, games and more.

Simple Everyday Mom has some cute squirrel themed worksheets including tracing the letter s, labeling the parts of a squirrel and a letter s maze. She also has more activity pages with a squirrel theme, including matching, a more traditional maze and a counting and graphing activity.

Work on letter recognition with this squirrel and acorn game printable from Teaching Mama. I love the idea of hiding the letters in a fall themed sensory bin for kids to find, identify and match to the letter on the worksheet.

For older kids you can do this “if I were a squirrel” writing prompt from Lesson Planet.

And throw in a little counting with these squirrel and acorn tens frame printables from JDaniel4’s Mom, which you can use to count real acorns or any other little fall themed thing you have handy.

Have you read?

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