Amadi’s Snowman (Written by: Katia Novet Saint-Lot; Illustrated by Dimitrea Tokunbo)

Short, short summary:Amadi is a young boy who lives in Nigeria. He wants to be a businessman when he grows up because the marketplace is exciting. He thinks he does not need to learn how to read if he is going to be a businessman, so he blows off his lesson with this reading tutor, Mrs. Chikodili, and goes to the market. While at the market, he runs into his friend, Chima, who is reading a book about a snowman. Amadi is immediately interested in the white creature with the carrot nose in the book and asks Chima questions about what he is reading. Chima tells Amadi that he reads to learn things, and this information gets Amadi thinking about reading and about snow. In the end, Mrs. Chikodili has quite a surprise for Amadi, and he has a change of heart.

So, what do I do with this book?

1. Part of Amadi’s Snowman is about what Amadi learns when he is watching over Chima’s shoulder while the older boy is reading. Ask your students to make a list of things they have learned when reading a book or even a magazine article. If you have young students, you can include information from books that parents have read to them and make the list of facts on a piece of chart paper for your students. If you teach second or third grade, once students have a list of things they learned from reading books, ask them to write a paragraph about why they think reading is important. If you are reading this book at home with your children, have a discussion with them about their favorite books and what they learn from them.

2. Amadi lives in Nigeria. Do your students or your children know about the country, Nigeria? It might be helpful to do a KWL chart about Nigeria before reading this book. The K stands for Know, which means writing down facts your students know about Nigeria. The W is for Wonder, which means that students should ask questions about Nigeria. The L stands for Learn, and this is when students write down facts they learned about Nigeria and answers to their questions from the Wonder column. A good website to find information for your students is The Nigerian Page.

3. Many of the illustrations in Amadi’s Snowman have interesting backgrounds without a lot of specific details, but the main characters in the forefront are painted with more details. Ask your students why they think Dimitrea Tokunbo created the illustrations this way. What was she doing to help tell Amadi’s story? Have your students draw and paint an illustration for one of their stories in Tokunbo’s style.

For more information about the illustrator of this book, please visit Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. If you have used this book in your classroom or with your child, please leave a comment here and let us know how it went!

If you have a recommendation of a book for me to read and review, please leave a comment here or email me at margodll@aol.com.

photo by MG Shelton at www.flickr.com