Archive - September 10, 2012

The Turn-around Bird (A Young Adult Book) by Lucinda Wingard (Nigeria 1966–68) Plicata Press $16.00 294 pages 2012 Review by Leita Kaldi Davis (Senegal 1993–96) Aimée and Zoe, African American twin teenagers, accompany their father to Timbuktu, where he pursues historical research on the ancient Mali Empire.  At first, the girls find traveling in the endless desert arduous, and the city of Timbuktu boring, with its sand-colored buildings and weird spires and spikes. But through the magie of a genie, Ifrit, they are catapulted back into 14th century Timbuktu, then a mecca of civilization. The girls embark upon adventures replete with tall, dark, handsome princes, caravans, Tuareg warriors, harems, a Griot, a sorcerer and a Sufi mystic. In the magnificent Mansa Kankan Musa’s Golden Empire, the girls learn many things about ancient Africa.  Aimée, who tends to be bookish and fascinated by words, is told that she inherits the gift . . .