Changing, Changing: Story and Collages

by Aracelis Girmay

Overview

"Once there was a boy. And once there was a girl."

So begins this story of metamorphoses, of life, and of possibility. The young protagonists of the opening lines take turns embodying facets of the world around them, undergoing transformations of quiet but mythical proportions. She becomes the moon, a tribe, an island. He becomes a bull, the sky, a kite. Bright, imaginative images of raw beauty illustrate each transformation.

Changing, Changing is a joyful celebration of many things. Of the world the children take into themselves as they are reincarnated again and again. Of the imagination, which knows no bounds as they experience the universe from the new perspective of each transformation. As children of African descent, their story is also a celebration of Blackness. Their tumble through the universe is a journey through life, a discovery of the world, themselves, and each other—making Changing, Changing a celebration of love and of friendship as well.

Adults will see the deeper philosophical message of change as a defining and driving force in life, while children (and adults, too) will delight in this playful romp through the everyday wonders that surround us.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807615539
Publisher:	Braziller, George Inc.
Publication date:	09/05/2005
Pages:	48
Product dimensions:	10.40(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	6 - 18 Years

About the Author

Aracelis Girmay is a Cave Canem Fellow and the recipient of grants from the Toor Cummings Center and the Watson Foundation. She lives in her native California, where she leads community writing workshops.

Editorial Reviews

In this spare ode to literal and figurative metamorphosis, a boy of African descent is not just a boy, but also a bull, the sky, a house, a light. A girl, also of African descent, is a moon, a white dress drying above the grass, a tribe. The same two cut-out photographs of both boy and girl are incorporated into intriguing collages where they are crudely transformed with paint or pieces of aluminum foil, trimmed into wormlike shapes or beamed into the Egyptian desert. The prose is simple: "He was a kite. / She was an island. / He was the wind. / She was a crow." Together they are two, "changing, / changing / walking toward each other / all of their lives." Children will have no trouble accepting the boy as a shell or the girl as a queen, island, or outer space, but adults may appreciate the author's afterword that suggests, "changing, changing is a valentine, a bow to friendship, a wedding proposal, a fortune, a dance" or "a simple celebration of world, love, and the imagination." (afterword) (Picture book. 3-adult)

Kirkus Reviews