MALAIKA, CARNIVAL QUEEN

A Black Canadian girl is curious about the father she never knew.

Malaika tells her mother and her grandmother about how she dreamed of a man with a basket of fruit. She soon learns that her father was a migrant worker who came to Canada before the rest of the family did but became sick and died here. The family travels to the farm where her father used to work. The farmworkers tell Malaika that he wanted to have a parade, “like back home,” and ask her to lead the Carnival parade in his honor. She puts up flyers asking others in their neighborhood to donate “pieces of cloth that remind you of home,” and together Malaika and Grandma create a gorgeous Carnival flag. Malaika appears to be part of a blended family, with a White-presenting French Canadian stepfather, Papa Fred, and stepsister, Adele; her mother and grandmother are Black. Though Malaika’s family’s country of origin isn’t mentioned, in an author’s note Hohn mentions her grandfather, a seasonal worker in the United States who died before returning home to Jamaica. The themes of immigrant communities, loving and supportive blended families, and finding ways to honor tradition and community shine brilliantly in this picture book. The illustrations, a combination of gouache and soft pastels, have a hazy look—ideal for bringing to life the child’s dreams of her father and showing how he’s still with her, no matter what. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A lovely story that intertwines a girl’s past and present into an honest reflection of her family.