A review by librarianoliviarae
Mama's Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation by Edwidge Danticat

5.0

Brilliant. Danticat is a master of capturing mother-daughter love. I deeply appreciate the inclusion of Haitian Creole and the child-centered separation narrative. Staub's art with its richness in color and simple recurring images adds more depth to the symbolism of the story. Saya, our main character, even wears emotional cues and symbols in dress patterns: keys for when she writes to the newspaper to get her mother back home, hearts for when she attends court and her mother is allowed to wait for her "papers" at home with her family, nightingales when she is finally reunited with her mother for in-person bedtime stories again.