I See You in Me
So, if you ask me where I come from, I would invite you over for a tea along with a slice of freshly baked cake, or perhaps a meal, and take you on a journey.
I spent my childhood and young adult years between Jamaica, the United States, Namibia, Tanzania and Sierra Leone. I’ve also lived in the UK, France, Spain, Canada and I’ve spent more than two thirds of my life in Germany. I started off my career as a concert pianist performing around the globe with orchestras and as a soloist. But after a few years, I developed a passion for education, quit my career, and set out to understand the what and why behind education. This questioning led me to complete a Masters degree in International and Comparative Education at Oxford University, an MPhill at Cambridge University and a PhD at the Institute of Education at the University of London.
I’ve spent the past 15 years working as an advisor and consultant to Multilateral institutions, schools and NGOs with a focus on educational reform, early childhood education and global citizenship. As a social entrepreneur, I’ve created social ventures to empower children and women, from a traveling art gallery to a social bakery to schools and creative summer camps. IN 2013, I founded an Edtech company; an audio-visual-video platform-Kiddify where children around the globe shared their ideas and skills.
As a writer, I believe in the transformative power of stories to touch hearts, open minds and connect worlds and firmly believe that if every single human being understood how inextricably linked we all are to each other and to our planet, the world would be even more beautiful!
MY BOOKS
Sundry animals with a common goal squabble, shriek, and work it out.
It’s Little Robin’s birthday. The “other animals in the zoo” are planning a party. There’s nary a cage, zookeeper, or human; the “zoo” claim is merely a casual, forgettable premise that explains the wildly diverse animals hanging out together. There are roosters from Portugal, Jamaica, Nigeria, Germany, and China and frogs from North America, Poland, Iran, Korea, Thailand, and Italy. (Origins are conveyed textually.) When everyone tries to plan the party’s “perfect” music (“moosic,” says Mr. Cow from England) by belting their own song, it’s a “cacophany”—animals are “roaring, mooing, yelping, braying, squawking and meowing,” all in their respective languages. There is the same problem with food (“fooohhhuuod” says Mr. Owl from the United States): Shouts for curry, phō, egusi, and sadza; an artichoke, a croissant, and sushi fly through the air. Both tussles resolve with a quick, didactic message. Sing “to-ge-ther,” commands Ms. Water Buffalo, the din becoming a “grand melody” under her direction. Accidentally mixing all the foods somehow produces “the tastiest thing” Little Robin’s ever eaten. The cooperation lessons offer no applicable how-to’s—combining myriad international dishes into one mish-mosh-stew might not really taste superb—but Baum-Owoyele’s cheerful watercolors have a true party feeling. The small trim size overcrowds the animals, but their bright colors and keen-edged shapes, crisp and energetic against the white background, bounce with energy.
Busy, crowded, vibrant—like a party. (Picture book. 3-6). KIRKUS
