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I want to let everyone know about a terrific book that I just read and that is
just now getting into the bookstores. It's titled: What Will My Mother Say"
by Dympna Ugwu-Oju ISBN 1-56625-042-0. She was at the CSLA (California School
Library) Conference last weekend in San Diego and enthralled everyone present
at her workshop.
Her book is about growing up in Nigeria as a woman reminded of her lowly status
each and every day. A women's purpose is to marry, bear male children, and
serve her master. She came to the US for college, eventually earning a
master's degree in journalism and then returned to Nigeria to an arranged
marriage while at the same time she took a position as the first Nigerian woman
to hold a mass communications teaching position at any Nigerian university.
Later she returned to the US with her husband and her family.
What makes Dympna's book unique, I think, is that it speaks beyond her
individual culture to those of us who have grown up in a traditional culture
and are trying to take the best from that culture and combine it with the best
from modern American culture. Each of her chapters seems to stand alone and
could easily be used in multicultural units. Her writing is honest and flows
from the heart.
Janet Claassen
Librarian
Madera High School
Madera CA 93637
Jclaass@cello.gina.calstate.edu
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