AYO'S ADVENTURE

A Black child receives a bedtime lesson on the interconnectedness of the African diaspora.

As Ayo tries to sleep, he turns to an alphabet book that inspires a dreamy adventure. Whether taking in the calypso music of Trinidad and Tobago or enjoying Nigerian fufu made from pounded plantain and cassava, Ayo gets a thorough education in the diversity of African diasporic cultures. He’s even transported through time as he travels to early-20th-century Tulsa, Oklahoma, to learn about Black Wall Street, and to the Bronx circa the 1980s to witness the development of hip-hop. The book is made up of alphabetically arranged entries (A is for Afro, while K is for Kente cloth), each listing a location and a brief description. Some pages are overburdened by text, and at times the author struggles to distill complex topics into digestible bits; a single spread doesn’t feel like enough space to explore hip-hop, while the Yoruba people are known for more than their “wood carvings, glassmaking, and weaving.” Occasionally, the digital art feels somewhat chaotic, with discordant colors, textures, and elements mingling. Still, it’s a laudable and ambitious effort, and one that will likely stir curious readers to learn more.

A jam-packed, at times unwieldy, globetrotting primer on Blackness.