Jamela's Dress

We first borrowed this book from the library for our 3 1/2 year old daughter. We have since purchased it for gifts for her classmates and have shared it at show and tell at her pre-school, where it also gets good reviews. The setting is different from our urban/surburban American life, but my daughter could relate to Jamela, particularly her dream of wearing a beautiful dress and her disappointment when she seemed to botch things up for her mother. The illustrations and lyrical text are both lovely. It is a real favorite.

Jamela (who must be about the age of five) set herself to the task of watching her mother's fabric for her new party dress.

Buuuuut... well... she got a little carried away taking it to show everybody. And the fabric is ruined. There's a bit of a contrived happy ending, though I guess children mightn't realize it.

I love how realistically Jamela is portrayed. Volunteering to keep the fabric safe and the forgetting is *exactly* how children act. And I like that "Even Jamela was cross with Jamela" at the end - children really can be their own harshest critics. But what I really love is the final sequence - armed with new fabric, Jamela's mother (clearly having learned her lesson) stays with her and sings and plays as the fabric dries on the clothesline, and then she makes a dress for her daughter. It's clear how much they love each other, and it just sends warm fuzzy feelings everywhere.

Jamela's Dress celebrates the youthful spirit of Jamela, a young South African girl. Jamela and her Mama shop for some material with which her mother will make a new dress to be worn on the occasion of a family wedding. They take it home, wash it, and hang it up to dry. As Jamela guards it against harm she becomes so excited by the beauty of the cloth that she wraps it about herself and parades through the town. Inevitably the cloth is ruined but through a clever plot device all turns out well and Jamela redeems herself. The wonderfully warm watercolors bring Jamela's neighborhood to life in all its energy and drama. An author's note traces the changing meaning of the word "kwela" through the changing history of his country and so illuminating some of the reasons new South Africa may have to exhibit a youthful spirit similar to Jamela's.
For children from three to six.

I've read French, and British, and Australian, and American, and a whole host of picture books from around the world. Yet one of the countries I've never really read a picture book from is beautiful South Africa. Here we have a country steeped in color and beauty and yet the schoolchildren of America know relatively little about it. Heck, I'll go so far as to say that MOST U.S. schoolchildren probably couldn't even find it on a map. Fortunately, that's all changed with the presence of author/illustrator Niki Daly and his heroine Jamela. If you've met Jamela in the past, you know what to expect from her. If you've never met her before, you're in for a real treat.

Jamela and her mother, residents of South Africa, are out shopping for dress fabric on fine and frolicksome day. After locating a beautiful but costly skein of orange/yellow weave, the two buy it up and wash the stiffness out of it. As the fabric dries on the line, Jamela's mama tells her daughter, in no uncertain terms, to keep the dog off of it. She doesn't want anything messing it up. Technically, Jamela obeys her mother's orders. The dog never gets the fabric dirty. Jamela, on the other hand, takes it on a joyous walk down the street, drawing the attention of many friends and neighbors. Too soon, however, Jamela must face the consequences of her actions and her mama is left unconsolable. It's only through an odd quirk of fate that Jamela is inadvertently responsible for her mother's new dress and a little surprise of her own.

Niki Daly must have kids. I've never said that about a single picture book illustrator before, but I think I have to say it now. There's something in Jamela's face that is dead on. When she wraps herself in the lovely remains of the fabric as her acquaintance Archie takes her picture, her face is a glowing combination of smugness and preschool pride. In fact, Daly has also captured the movements of his characters beautifully in this story. From Jamela's traipse along the dusty dirty street to the rambunctious clamering of friends and neighbors, Daly has an eye for natural human relations. There are delightful tiny details to observe as well. Note that when Jamela takes her walk she has obviously outfitted herself as well in her mama's too large red sandals.

And then there are the colors and fabrics in this story. The only picture book I've read that rivals this one in delightful material selection would have to be Lloyd Alexander's, "The Fortune Teller". Together, these two books would make one heckuva good storytime session. In this book, every person in this book wears realistic and fitting clothing. Archie sports a remarkable matching print suit while Jamela eventual comes to wear an elephant infused jumper. And Daly's so adept that you can sometimes make out the shifting colors and shades that make up each one of Jamela's dredlocks.

In an Author's Note at the end, Niki Daly gives some additional information about the history of the term "Kwela" (a word that pops up more than once in this book) giving the reader a little more information about South Africa itself. It fits the book well. I'd often heard wonderful things about the Jamela book series, but I'd never had the pleasure of actually reading one before. Now that I have, I'm happy to have found it. It's a vibrant and entirely pleasing concoction.

"Just one more time" are the words uttered by my two year old after we finish reading about "Kwela Jamela African Queen". Jamela's Dress is a unique representation of the simple joys in a child's life and how imagination can sometimes lead to trouble. Niki Daly's illustrations are a brilliant use of color that not only are appealing to the eye but also represent that of the African culture. This is definately a story that ties in a silly sence of children's adventure with a mother-daughter bond and cultural richness.