Being confirmed admirers of Yaba Badoe’s fiction for older readers, we were thrilled to hear about her first work for younger children, with Joelle Avelino’s beautifully bright, dynamic illustrations promising the perfect feast of words and pictures. As expected, the result certainly lives up to its promise. Set in present-day Notting Hill, Man Man and the Tree of Memories is a bedazzlement of carnival magic, African-Caribbean culture and ancestral connections.
We meet young Man-man in Notting Hill as he’s practising his carnival dance steps, with his nan recently arrived from Jamaica to take care of his ill mother. With “Let Freedom Rain” the theme of this year’s carnival, Man-man’s Aunt Flo, a costume-making seamstress, asks who he’s going to be, explaining that “for one day and one day only, you can decide who you are and feel it deep down.” Such is the magic of carnival.
While Man-man keeps his plans a secret from everyone but Aunt Flo, his exuberance invokes the Queen of Revels, whom he asks to make his mum better. This sees Man-man, along with his best friend and sister, swept back in time and across the world to Africa. Here, after they assemble around the Tree of Memories and witness painful, brutal realities of Man-man’s family’s heritage, Man-man comes to understand how the anguish held in the Tree is afflicting his mother. Propelled by profound love and newfound knowledge, hope, joy and freedom burst forth. What a splendidly inventive book.
Set in contemporary Notting Hill, Man-man and his friends are swept up in the exuberant preparations for carnival. But his mother is ill and even as he dances, he calls desperately to the Queen of Revels, as old as time to make her well again. Swept away with his best friend Kareem and sharp-tongued sister Panama, to a place in between, the Queen of Revels plunges Man-man into Africa's past and reveals his family's heritage.
As they gather around the sacred Tree of Memories, he witnesses many slaves, captives whose pain and anguish and longing is held by the tree. Man-man understands how this is draining his mother and how he must help her back to the freedom stolen from his ancestors
Watch Illustrator Joelle Avelino and author Yaba Badoe introduce Man Man and the Tree of Memories
'Written with lushness and lyricism, this is a complex tale of friendships, community and family conflict expressed in fantastical metaphors' Sunday Times Book of the Week
'[A] stirring fantasy, rich in west African legend, investigates the bonds of blood, love and friendship, and what it takes to grow into your power' Guardian
Praise for A Jigsaw of Fire and Stars;
'A blend of magical realism and brutality, this is a powerful and original novel' Sally Morris, Daily Mail
'I adore Yaba Badoe's writing; it's astonishingly brilliant and always invokes a visceral reaction. She weaves ancient storytelling magic into her words... Everyone should read Badoe' -- Sophie Anderson, author of The House with Chicken Legs
Author
About Yaba Badoe
Yaba Badoe is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and writer. Yaba was born in Ghana but now lives in London with her husband. She has been nominated for the Distinguished Woman of African Cinema award. Her children's novel, Branford Boase shortlisted A Jigsaw of Fire and Stars, Wolf Light and Jhalak Prize longlisted and Edward Stanford Children's Travel Book of the Year shortlisted Lionheart Girl are published by Zephyr. Yaba is a judge for the Jhalak Prize 2023.
