Sikulu and Harambe Book Review

When we got the book in the mail, my daughter was singing in the backseat of the car, “I love books, I love books.” She truly does love to get new books to read after her bath at night.

Sikulu and Harambe by the Zambezi River is a wonderful African version of the Good Samaritan story. This story starts off in the African village of Sioma with two friends Sikulu and Harambe playing hide and seek.

As Sikulu and Harambe go to the river to get a drink, they see an old woman washing her clothes. She slips and her clothing goes into the river and begins to float downstream. She asks for assistance from other animals by the waters edge however, No one will assist until the clothing gets to Harambe and Sikulu. Even though Sikulu is a small spider and not a great swimmer, he still helps, risking his safety on the back of Harambe.

They are rewarded with lovely gifts and envied by the animals that refused to assist the old woman. The moral of the story is simple and easy for children to follow along.

Issa loved the pictures while I was reading. She did the sounds for every animal and signed each animal as I read as well, each page was like a mini-adventure for her, full of exclamations and shouts out as we counted the animals on the page and/or saw something new.The back of the book even has a glossary of terms and throughout the book there is pronunciation assistance.

This story is the first in a series where Sikulu and Harambe are traveling to different countries in Africa and the adventures they find along the way. Written by Kunle Oguneye was born and raised in Nigeria. He left his job in technology to pursue his career as a children’s author, I’m going out on a limb to say, it was the right choice!

You can check out their website and even get the book with a stuffed Sikulu and Harambe to make story time even more enjoyable!