Bonjour, Lonnie

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Overview

Caldecott-winner Faith Ringgold uses a time-travel story to trace an aspect of African American history in the early 1900s. Lonnie, an orphaned African American boy with red hair and green eyes, follows a magical bird named Love Bird back in time to Paris during World War I, where he meets his own grandparents. *********Full color.

An African-American Jewish boy traces his ancestry with the help of the Love Bird of Paris.

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More About This Book

Overview

Caldecott-winner Faith Ringgold uses a time-travel story to trace an aspect of African American history in the early 1900s. Lonnie, an orphaned African American boy with red hair and green eyes, follows a magical bird named Love Bird back in time to Paris during World War I, where he meets his own grandparents. *********Full color.

An African-American Jewish boy traces his ancestry with the help of the Love Bird of Paris.

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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
In this fantastical, sweeping picture book, Ringgold reintroduces a character from Dinner at Aunt Connie's in order to chronicle some pivotal moments in African American history. Shown here in an earlier phase, Lonnie is living in a Paris orphanage. He is visited one night by a magical Love Bird who inspires him to "look everywhere" for his loved ones. On his surreal search, Lonnie combs the streets and sights of Paris, even speaking to the Mona Lisa inside the Louvre. The journey changes course when Lonnie encounters the spirits of his deceased grandparents and parents. They explain both Lonnie's mixed racial heritage and, more broadly, black Americans' contributions to the arts (e.g., the Harlem Renaissance) and to the Allies' victories in the two World Wars. With an emphasis on acceptance and love, Ringgold's text illustrates that families can come in all kinds of configurations. In her dense acrylic paintings, Ringgold refrains from literalism, effectively depicting such difficult subject matter as violence and even death with slightly abstract perspectives. This meaty volume invites repeated examination and will hold special appeal for African Americans and children in adoptive and/or mixed-race families. As a bonus, French phrases and their English translations are sprinkled throughout, and a short glossary of historical figures and movements appears at the end. Ages 5-9. (Sept.)
Children's Literature - Leila Toledo
The Caldecott award-winning author tells about an African American experience rarely presented to children. Lonnie's story is about his search for his heritage. It tells about the flight of African American artists, writers and musicians, including his grandfather, to Paris in the 1920's to achieve cultural freedom following World War I. It also tells of the bravery shown and honors bestowed on the Harlem Hell fighters in the 369th regiment, which opened the door for the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance. The mixed heritage of Lonnie's family also is related, including the internment of his Jewish mother by the Nazis and the death of his father in the French army during World War II.
School Library Journal
Gr 2-4This unusual story involves Lonnie, the red-haired, green-eyed boy introduced in Ringgold's Dinner at Aunt Connie's House (Hyperion, 1993). He pursues an elusive "Love Bird" around Paris until it leads him to a dreamlike place where he learns his family's history and how he came to be orphaned. Lonnie meets his African-American grandfather, who expatriated to Paris in the 1920s; his French grandmother; his soldier father, who was killed in World War II; and his Jewish mother, who died in the Holocaust. Lonnie is told that he was smuggled to the U.S. by an African-American student. Though he wants to stay with his family, they convince him to return to the "real world," and the magical Love Bird transports him to his adoptive parents. The Love Bird is a somewhat awkward device but it helps bridge the fantasy and realism in the story. The artwork, similar in style to that of Ringgold's earlier books, also incorporates elements of fantasy and realism. The artist shows strong positive images of whites and blacks together and makes children aware that both Jews and African Americans have endured prejudice. However, because many issues and historical references are touched upon but not fully explained, youngsters may be left with many unanswered questions. While not totally successful as a story, this unique book focuses on aspects of history that are not commonly covered for this audience.Louise L. Sherman, Anna C. Scott School, Leonia, NJ
Kirkus Reviews
Lush, deeply imagined paintings can't quite carry the didactic storyline in this tale from the creator of My Dream of Martin Luther King (1995).

Lonnie, an orphaned African-American boy with the red hair and green eyes of his mixed heritage, is transported back to Paris during the first world war by l'Oiseau d'Amour—the Love Bird. This magical creature shows him how his grandfather of the 369th infantry, the "Harlem Hell Fighters," met his red-haired French grandmother; and how their son, Lonnie's father, died in WW II. Claudine, his green-eyed, Jewish mother, was lost to the Nazis and Lonnie was smuggled away. The spirits of his ancestors—with connections to the Harlem Renaissance, the black Parisian community, and the French Resistance, among others—fade away, leaving Lonnie no longer orphaned but with loving stepparents (first met in Ringgold's Dinner at Aunt Connie's House, 1993). Ringgold's acrylic paintings will tug at anyone who has seen—or wants to see—Paris; their intense colors, stylized figures, and beautiful use of pattern draw the viewers in again and again. The complicated, though well-intentioned, story, with its layers of history and magical realism, may elude younger readers and leave older ones confused.

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780786820627
  • Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children
  • Publication date: 9/28/1996
  • Edition description: 1 ED
  • Edition number: 1
  • Pages: 32
  • Age range: 9 - 12 Years
  • Lexile: 710L (what's this?)
  • Product dimensions: 10.33 (w) x 10.39 (h) x 0.41 (d)

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