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Summary
Summary
This New York Times bestseller recounts the true story of the touching gift bestowed on the US by the Maasai people in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
In June of 2002, a mere nine months since the September 11 attacks, a very unusual ceremony begins in a far-flung village in western Kenya. An American diplomat is surrounded by hundreds of Maasai people. A gift is about to be bestowed upon the American men, women, and children, and he is there to accept it. The gift is as unexpected as it is extraordinary.
Hearts are raw as these legendary Maasai warriors offer their gift to a grieving people half a world away. Word of the gift will travel newswires around the globe, and for the heartsick American nation, the gift of fourteen cows emerges from the choking dust and darkness as a soft light of hope―and friendship.
With stunning paintingsfrom Thomas Gonzalez, master storyteller Carmen Agra Deedy (in collaboration with Naiyomah) hits all the right notes in this elegant story of generosity that crosses boundaries, nations, and cultures.
Author Notes
Award-winning children's book author and storyteller Carmen Agra Deedy was born in Havana, Cuba in 1960. She immigrated to the United States with her family in 1963 and grew up in Decatur, Georgia.
Deedy has written Agatha's Feather Bed: Not Just Another Wild Goose Story, Tree Man, The Library Dragon, The Last Dance, The Secret of Old Zeb, The Yellow Star, and Fourteen Cows for America. She has also contributed to National Public Radio's Weekend All Things Considered and Latino USA.
Deedy has performed as a storyteller at venues including the Disney Institute, the New Victory Theater, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the Kennedy Center and also at the St. Louis Storytelling Festival, the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival, the National Storytelling Festival, the Beyond the Border International Storytelling Festival, the National Book Festival, schools, conferences, and museums.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-5-Kimeli Naiyomah returned home to his Maasai village from New York City with news of 9/11 terrorist attacks. His story prompted the villagers to give a heartfelt gift to help America heal. Deedy and Gonzalez bring Naiyomah's story to life with pithy prose and vibrant illustrations. Each block of text consists of a few short, elegant sentences: "A child asks if he has brought any stories. Kimeli nods. He has brought with him one story. It has burned a hole in his heart." The suspenseful pace is especially striking when surrounded by Gonzalez's exquisite colored pencil and pastel illustrations. The colors of Kenya explode off the page: rich blues, flaming oranges, fire-engine reds, and chocolate browns. Full-page spreads depict the Maasai people and their land so realistically as to be nearly lifelike. Gonzalez manages to break the fourth wall and draw readers in as real-time observers. The book's only flaw is the less-than-concrete ending: ".there is no nation so powerful it cannot be wounded, nor a people so small they cannot offer mighty comfort" is an important message, but not a particularly satisfying one for children. Fortunately, their questions will be answered by Naiyomah's endnote, and it provides a fitting conclusion to this breathtaking chronicle.-Rebecca Dash, New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
A native of Kenya, Naiyomah was in New York City on September 11, 2001. In his and Deedy's (Martina the Beautiful Cockroach) lyrical account, he returns to his homeland and tells the members of his Maasai tribe a story that had "burned a hole in his heart." The narrative avoids specifics and refers to the events of 9/11 obliquely as the villagers listen to him with "growing disbelief": "Buildings so tall they can touch the sky? Fires so hot they can melt iron? Smoke and dust so thick they can block out the sun?" Until they read Naiyomah's concluding note, children may not fully comprehend either his story or the villagers' subsequent actions: the tribe elders bless 14 cows, revered in Maasai culture, and symbolically offer them to the American people to help them heal. Featuring luminous images of the Maasai in vivid native dress and sweeping African landscapes, Gonzalez's pastel, colored pencil and airbrush paintings appear almost three-dimensional in their realism. A moving tale of compassion and generosity. Ages 6-10. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Wilson Kimeli Naiyomah is about to return home, to a small village in Kenya. He has been studying to become a doctor in the United States. Amid a joyous homecoming, the children in the village ask if he has brought any stories. He has only one; one that has "burned a hole in his heart." Naiyomah was in New York City on September 11. In gentle yet piercing present-tense prose, storyteller Deedy introduces readers to a young Maasai scholar who wants nothing more than to help a nation heal. In Maasai tradition, cows are sacred, and Naiyomah asks the elders to bless his cow so he can offer it to grieving Americans. In an incredible show of compassion and strength, other villagers join him. Fourteen cows in all, from one tiny Kenyan village, prove that hope and friendship can cross all boundaries. Gonzalez's saturated paintings, glowing with oranges, reds and browns, radiate a warmth that is matched only by the Maasai's generosity. A stirring, heartwarming tale that made headlines when it happenedand is now, thankfully, preserved on the page for children. (afterword) (Informational picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
While returning home to visit his remote Maasai village in Kenya, Naiyomah tells the members of his nomadic tribe about America, where he is in medical school, and the horror of 9/11: Buildings so tall they can touch the sky? Fires so hot they can melt iron? What can the Maasai do to help thousands of souls lost? Unlike in the picture book Muktar and the Camels (2009), also set in East Africa, the tone here is too reverential, and the characters have little individual identity. But based on Naiyomah's true experiences, the words and the glowing mixed-media illustrations show empathy and connections across communities, with close-up portraits of the Maasai on the savannah at work with their cows under the open sky, their rituals, their sorrow for New York's tragedy, and their heartfelt generosity. In a reversal from the usual international aid story, here it is the U.S. that gets help from a developing country as the villagers donate 14 sacred cows to America.--Rochman, Hazel Copyright 2009 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
THIS is a lovely picture book about foreign aid involving the United States and a remote village in Kenya, but it's not what you think. Instead of an earnest tale about Americans helping an impoverished people far away, it opens with a Kenyan named Kimeli returning to his village from New York City in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. "A child asks if he has brought any stories," Carmen Agra Deedy writes. "Kimeli nods. He has brought with him one story. It has burned a hole in his heart." Kimeli tells the people gathered around him about the destruction of the twin towers, and they are stunned. They cannot imagine buildings so tall they touch the sky, let alone fires so hot they melt steel. The villagers scarcely fathom what happened, but they are touched and want to help. "What can we do for these poor people?" one elder asks. The villagers are Masai, both warriors and cattle-herders, who measure their lives in part by the number of cattle they own. The illustrations by Thomas Gonzalez are beautifully evocative. They show Kimeli in his Stanford windbreaker and running shoes, surrounded by villagers and, of course, innumerable cows. Over and over in the scenes, two spears or two sticks or even two giraffe necks appear in the background, a subtle echo of the twin towers. Kimeli declares that he wishes to give his cow - he has only one - to the suffering Americans, and asks for the elders' blessing. They not only approve but add 13 more cows to the gift. Later, the American ambassador comes to the village, and the Masai solemnly present him with 14 cows, as the book puts it, "because there is no nation so powerful it cannot be wounded, nor a people so small they cannot offer mighty comfort." This is a true story, as an afterword by Wilson Kimeli Naiyomah explains. He describes how he went to America on a scholarship and was shown great kindness there. So when he wanted to do something after 9/11, he thought: To heal a sorrowing heart, give something that is dear to your own. That is how the United States came to receive foreign aid from a Masai village. And if you're wondering what happened to the cows: No, the United States ambassador has not been inviting all his friends to steak dinners. These are sacred cows that are not meant to be slaughtered, and a Masai elder is looking after them on our behalf. They have calved and the herd now numbers more than 35. Kimeli explains the purpose of this charming book: "The Masai wish is that every time Americans hear the simple story of 14 cows, they will find a measure of comfort and peace." Nicholas D. Kristof, a Times Op-Ed columnist, is the co-author, with Sheryl WuDunn, of "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide."