Full color photographs. "Hello, Stranger-Friend" begins Maya Angelou's story about Thandi, a South African Ndebele girl, her mischievous brother, her beloved chicken, and the astonishing mural art produced by the women of her tribe. With never-before-seen photographs of the very private Ndebele women and their paintings, this unique book shows the passing of traditions from parent to child and introduces young readers to a new culture through a new friend.

There really isn't a whole lot I can say about this little picture book except the pictures were beyond beautifully taken, and of course it was beautifully written by one of my top favorite authors. There are very few authors that would be automatic pick ups for me and Maya Angelou is one of them. There have been maybe one or two books of Maya Angelou's that I wasn't able to get into at the time I tried to read them so I just set them aside. Majority of the books I have read by her I have enjoyed tremendously, even if was a hard to read/sad book. This one was far from sad. It made you want to go live in Ndebele. Now, if you try to get me to pronounce that, I would be at a total loss! lol....

Maya wrote this in the voice of a little girl named Thandi and she is telling the story of her home, her family & her favorite friendly chicken. She made me fall in love with this whole village of people, the village itself and especially Thandi. And the pictures that went along with them just made it even better. I found myself just staring at every picture just trying to take in and [almost] memorize each one. I couldn't help but smile at many of the pictures because you could see the mischievousness in some of their faces....and all of them were adorably cute!

I won't say much more about the book because I don't want to give away too much of what is in it...even in the pictures themselves. I want people to just go find it, pick it up and look into the book themselves. I believe children as well as adults will enjoy this little book equally.

Okay, maybe I had a little more to say about the book than I thought I did! :-D ( )

This book is written by the noted African American novelist and poet, Maya Angelou and illustrated with photographs of scenes from Ndebele life. The narrator is eight year old Thandi, who describes her house, her friends and her activities in a cheerful, lively way. My daughter liked Thandi's sense of humor, especially in describing her frustrations with her young brother. The text is fairly long and may be a little too "belle lettre" for some young readers, but the pictures and colors of the text keep it interesting. ( )

Very cool, fun book! I know students would learn a lot form it because even I learned some new information.

A very cool book that even I learned a lot from!