School Library Journal Review

Gr 3-4-- This clearly written but seriously flawed portrait of a 12-year-old black South African girl contains high quality, full-color photographs. Tumi is shown going to school, shopping, cooking while her mother is at work, and relaxing at home in their tiny Soweto apartment. Although there are some glimpses of poverty, this is not the Soweto of Sarafina : Tumi seems untouched by school boycotts, police action, crime, or racism. The book is marred by numerous historical, geographical, and sociological inaccuracies. Some appear in the main body of the text, but most are in a section offering facts at the back of the book. Rely instead on Karen Jacobsen's South Africa (1989) or R. Conrad Stein's South Africa (1986, both Childrens), for older audiences. Beverley Naidoo's novels Journey to Jo'burg (1986) and Chain of Fire (1990, both Lippincott) offer realistic portraits of young South Africans. --Susan Giffard, Englewood Public Library, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.