Book Review: The Girl Who Married a Skull and Other African Stories by F. E. Hicks et al.

The Girl Who Married a Skull and Other African Stories: A Cautionary Fables and Fairytales Book written and illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks and many others

This anthology of fifteen stories draws inspiration from all over the continent of Africa, from the jungles to the plains to ancient Egypt. Like most folk and fairy tales, the stories have a strong sense of good and evil and emphasize the triumph of virtues like kindness, honesty, and bravery in what are often the most adverse circumstances you can imagine. Some tales explain natural phenomena like thunder always following after lightening or turtles living in water or hyenas being the least popular animals in the animal kingdom. The characters are sometimes normal humans, sometimes gods, sometimes anthropomorphized animals. Sometimes they are all mixed together in one story. The tales have a lot of whimsy and imagination. They are a delight to read

The art in these comics is quite varied. Each creator has their own style of drawing. I was surprised I liked them all--usually there's one or two in an anthology like this that don't work well. The styles all suit their stories and look good in the black and white format of the book. I will definitely be looking for more of this series in the future.

Highly recommended.

Book Review: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

William Kamkwamba grew up in a small town in Malawi. The town's marketplace has electricity, most of the time, but the farms are too far out and too poor to be wired up. People would come into town to charge their cell phones, sometimes at businesses that ran power cords from the shop to a table on the street. The local primary school was okay. Getting a secondary-school education meant paying a lot of money and walking to schools far away. As William grew up, one summer of bad weather ruined his father's crops (maize for sustenance, tobacco for profit), along with everyone else's. The government had sold off its surplus and provided no help. A slow and devastating famine swallowed up lives and hope. Money was short and William couldn't continue his education.

But it didn't stop him from learning. He was a tinkerer, playing with radios and whatever was at hand. He discovered some scientific text books at the local primary school's library (which had three shelves of books). In the books, he saw windmills. William was fascinated by the idea of providing electricity for his family and maybe a water pump for the farm so that a drought wouldn't ever wipe them out again. He began to experiment; he rummaged through scrap piles for parts; he dreamed of a better life for himself, his family, and his country.

Happily, his dreams came true after going through many hardships. In addition to the famine that cost so many lives, he had to deal with friends and neighbors who thought he was crazy. All the perseverance and ingenuity paid off when he built his first windmill from some bicycle parts, some PVC pipe, and an assortment of spare parts. And a lot of help from friends and others. His story is a personal triumph but also one that shows the support and love he received along the way.

The book is very inspiring and well worth reading. It gives a glimpse into sub-Saharan life and into the ambition that we all could have. William was not particularly talented but he did work very hard to achieve his dreams, in spite of the challenges he faced.

Recommended.

Book Review: African Saints, African Stories: 40 Holy Men and Women by C. L. Brown

African Saints, African Stories: 40 Holy Men and Women by Camille Lewis Brown, Ph. D.

The history of Catholicism in Africa dates all the way back to New Testament times, when Deacon Philip baptized an Ethiopian official of the Nubian queen (cf. Acts 8). This book gives brief biographies of thirty saints, blesseds, and venerables, along with ten more "saints in waiting," for whom the cause of canonization (the official process whereby the Catholic Church declares someone a saint) has not been opened yet.

The book covers a wide swath of history, starting with saints from the 200s AD all the way to the 1900s. Some are naturally more famous, such as Saint Augustine, his mother Saint Monica, and Saint Josephine Bakhita. Some are more obscure, such as Saint Julia of Carthage (a Christian slave martyred in the fifth century) and Saint Moses the Black (so named for the infamous life of crime he lived before his conversion experience). My favorite was Father Augustine Derricks (1887-1929), a San Dominican Protestant who came to America to fight Catholicism. He met a Catholic family in Washington, D.C., and was impressed by the children's faith. He eventually became Catholic and went to Rome for seminary. He came back to America, where he served in an Italian parish and was accepted quite easily since he learned fluent Italian during his studies! The book lists these men and women in alphabetical order, so the different historical periods are jumbled together.

The book is designed for devotional reading, so the jumble is not jarring. Each person has a brief biography (one to four pages), a relevant Scripture verse, a prayer to that person, and a reflection question for further meditation. The book ends with a list of the feast days for the saints (in calendar order), a litany to all the African saints (six pages long!), and the usual bibliography, notes, and index.

This was a quick read and a good companion piece to books like Fearless: Stories of American Saints and English Catholic Heroines.

Highly recommended.