Mama's Nightingale
  • Published: 15 January 2017
  • ISBN: 9780525428091
  • Imprint: Dial
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 32
  • RRP: $35.00

Mama's Nightingale

A Story of Immigration and Separation

Formats & editions
EBook
1 Sep 2015
Hardback
15 Jan 2017
Buy from…
Amazon Booktopia Dymocks QBD Readings Your Bookstore Abbeys Boomerang Find local retailers Find local retailers Collins Fishpond Gleebooks Harry Hartog Kinokuniya Robinsons The Nile Mighty Ape

A touching and timely tale of parent-child love, from a National Book Award finalist

A touching tale of parent-child separation and immigration, from a National Book Award finalist

After Saya's mother is sent to an immigration detention center, Saya finds comfort in listening to her mother's warm greeting on their answering machine. To ease the distance between them while she’s in jail, Mama begins sending Saya bedtime stories inspired by Haitian folklore on cassette tape. Moved by her mother's tales and her father's attempts to reunite their family, Saya writes a story of her own—one that just might bring her mother home for good.

With stirring illustrations, this tender tale shows the human side of immigration and imprisonment—and shows how every child has the power to make a difference.
  • Published: 15 January 2017
  • ISBN: 9780525428091
  • Imprint: Dial
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 32
  • RRP: $35.00
Categories:

About the author

Edwidge Danticat

EDWIDGE DANTICAT is the author of Breath, Eyes, Memory; Krik? Krak!; The Farming of Bones; and Behind the Mountains, a young adult novel; The Dew Breaker and Anacaona. She is also the editor of The Butterfly's Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States and The Beacon Best of 2000: Great Writing by Women and Men of All Colors and Cultures.

Also by Edwidge Danticat

Krik? Krak!
After The Dance
See all

Praise for Mama's Nightingale

Now a Kirkus Best Books of 2015! "Skillfully written with Creole words sprinkled into the English, Mama’s Nightingale is richly illuminated by Leslie Staub’s oil paintings evoking Haitian folk art.”—The New York Times * "A must-read both for children who live this life of forced separation and those who don't."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review * "[Danticat] beautifully conveys a story about loss and grief and hope and joy."—School Library Journal, starred review "A serious yet hopeful story...readers similarly separated from a loved one may well find solace in Danticat’s honest storytelling."—Publishers Weekly "Children of parents who are being detained will be comforted by knowing they are not the only ones facing this challenge and might even be inspired to take action the way Saya does."—The Horn Book "Danticat’s immigration story is compelling...The inclusion of Haitian phrases adds to the personal nature of the story, whose happy ending is deserved by all."—Booklist

  • Now a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2015!
  • * "A must-read both for children who live this life of forced separation and those who don't."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review
  • "Skillfully written with Creole words sprinkled into the English, Mama's Nightingale is richly illuminated by Leslie Staub's oil paintings evoking Haitian folk art."--The New York Times
  • * "[Danticat] beautifully conveys a story about loss and grief and hope and joy."--School Library Journal, starred review
  • "A serious yet hopeful story...readers similarly separated from a loved one may well find solace in Danticat's honest storytelling."--Publishers Weekly
  • "Children of parents who are being detained will be comforted by knowing they are not the only ones facing this challenge and might even be inspired to take action the way Saya does."--The Horn Book
  • "Danticat's immigration story is compelling...The inclusion of Haitian phrases adds to the personal nature of the story, whose happy ending is deserved by all."--Booklist

    • Acclaim for Edwidge Danticat
  • 1994 Fiction Award, The Caribbean Writer
  • 1995 Woman of Achievement Award, Barnard College
  • 1995 Pushcart Short Story Prize for "Between the Pool and the Gardenias"
  • 1995 National Book Award nomination for Krik? Krak!
  • 1996 Best Young American Novelists for Breath, Eyes, Memory by Granta
  • 1996 Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Grant
  • 1998 Breath, Eyes, Memory selected as Oprah's Book Club pick
  • 1999 American Book Award for The Farming of the Bones
  • 1999 The Flaiano Prize for Literature for The Farming of the Bones
  • 2005 The Story Prize for "The Dew Breaker"
  • 2007 National Book Award nomination for Brother, I'm Dying
  • 2007 The National Book Critics Circle Award for Brother, I'm Dying
  • 2008 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Brother, I'm Dying
  • 2009 MacArthur Fellows Program Genius grant
  • 2011 Langston Hughes Medal, City College of New York
  • 2011 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for Create Dangerously
  • 2012 Smith College Honorary Degree
  • 2013 Yale University Honorary Degree
  • 2014 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction shortlist for Claire of the Sea Light

    • penguin pop image
    penguin pop image