Grandpa Cacao: A Tale of Chocolate, from Farm to Family

by Elizabeth Zunon

Overview

This beautifully illustrated story connects past and present as a girl bakes a chocolate cake with her father and learns about her grandfather harvesting cacao beans in West Africa.

Chocolate is the perfect treat, everywhere!

As a little girl and her father bake her birthday cake together, Daddy tells the story of her Grandpa Cacao, a farmer from the Ivory Coast in West Africa. In a land where elephants roam and the air is hot and damp, Grandpa Cacao worked in his village to harvest cacao, the most important ingredient in chocolate. "Chocolate is a gift to you from Grandpa Cacao," Daddy says. "We can only enjoy chocolate treats thanks to farmers like him." Once the cake is baked, it's ready to eat, but this isn't her only birthday present. There's a special surprise waiting at the front door . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681196411
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	05/21/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	14 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Elizabeth Zunon was born in Albany, New York, and grew up in the Ivory Coast, West Africa. As a little girl, she loved to draw, paint, make up dances, and play dress-up in a household that was never devoid of chocolate. As she grew up, she didn't really change! Elizabeth now lives in Albany, where she explores a multicultural world through painting, silk-screening, collage, and pondering the endless possibilities of chocolate. Grandpa Cacao is her first authored-illustrated book, and a love letter to the grandfather she never knew.
www.lizzunon.com
@ElizabethZunon

Editorial Reviews

04/29/2019

“Chocolate is my most favorite thing ever,” the narrator of Zunon’s family story declares. On her birthday, she and her father make a chocolate cake. As they prepare the ingredients, the father remembers his childhood on his father’s cacao farm on the Ivory Coast: “ ‘The air, the rain, and the soil must be just right for growing cacao.’ Daddy holds a sieve over the mixing bowl, and I pour in the flour.” As a young man, he helped to bag the cacao beans for buyers and liked to taste the cacao fruit pulp. Harvest scenes feature screen-printed white figures over painted backgrounds, while contemporary scenes integrate collage accents. A surprise visit brings the story full circle as Zunon conveys how scents and shared recipes can connect the past to the present. Back matter includes a cake recipe and information about how chocolate is made. Ages 3–6. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Evocative . . . sure to expand the minds of children, this is an engaging multicultural addition for a public library picture book collection.” —School Library Journal, starred review

"Zunon, who based the story on her own childhood, uses a winsome blend of paint, collage and ghostly screen-printed figures that represent the faraway Grandpa Cacao—who appears in a buoyant surprise ending, just as the cake is ready." - New York Times Book Review

“Replete with sensory details, and two spreads of backmatter round out the informational content, including maps, history, and a cake recipe. Delectable treats plus family history make this a sweet story to share.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Gracefully intertwines the past and present.” —Booklist

“Striking oil paint, collage, and screen-printed illustrations . . . point to the importance of traditions to those in the African diaspora when they settle in new places.” —Horn Book Magazine

“Zunon conveys how scents and shared recipes can connect the past to the present.” —Publishers Weekly

“Elizabeth Zunon's warm, bright illustrations provide a cheerful balance, but it's the ache of a parent's absence that most powerfully animates the book.” —The New York Times Book Review on POEMS IN THE ATTIC

“This book will appeal to adults eager to impart an uplifting Third World human-interest story, but it is also sure to resonate with children who will simply love the curiosity, resilience and resourcefulness of this doughty African youth.” —The Wall Street Journal on THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND

“The co-authors have collaborated with artist Elizabeth Zunon on a powerful, gorgeously illustrated children's book.” —The Boston Globe on THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND

From the Publisher

★ 04/01/2019

PreS-K—While waiting for her mother, a girl and her father make a cake to celebrate her birthday using one very important ingredient: cacao. The father invokes the memory of Grandpa Cacao, who finds the most joy in his cacao farm in Ivory Coast, Africa. Zunon's first authored–illustrated picture book takes readers back and forth between the girl's kitchen and the grandfather's farm. The first person narration is evocative. Six-line paragraphs accompany art created with oil paint and collage with screen print. The illustrations have a majestic feeling, as though the main characters control the scene. Moreover, this large scale encourages the readers' eyes to focus on the charismatic pictorial elements, which utilize colors to elicit an emotional connection. The back matter contains author's notes referencing the reality of the cacao trade and child labor, information about the science behind chocolate and the first people who tried chocolate, an explanation of the production process, and a chocolate cake recipe. VERDICT With an educational approach sure to expand the minds of children, this is an engaging multicultural addition for a public library picture book collection.–Kathia Ibacache, Simi Valley Public Library, CA

School Library Journal

2019-02-13

Zunon writes and illustrates an ode to her grandfather, a cacao worker in the Ivory Coast, through the eyes of a young girl.

As they bake their favorite chocolate cake for her birthday, the girl's father tells her that chocolate is a gift from farmers like her grandpa, and she asks him to tell her about Grandpa Cacao again. As they mix their cake batter, the pictures show her father's homeland, "where the air breathes hot and damp, thick with stories and music and the languages of people from tiny villages and big cities." He describes the hard work Grandpa Cacao did on the farm, carrying heavy loads, picking ripe fruit, scooping out the cacao pods, spreading them out to dry. As they put their cake in the oven, the little girl wonders what special treat her mother is bringing home for her birthday. When the doorbell rings, she is thrilled to meet the best surprise ever. Zunon's familiar paint-and-collage illustrations use glowing brown faces and natural tones in the girl's story and white, screen-printed human figures against painted backgrounds in the father's story set in the Ivory Coast. The story is replete with sensory details, and two spreads of backmatter round out the informational content, including maps, history, and a cake recipe.

Delectable treats plus family history make this a sweet story to share. (Picture book. 5-9)

Kirkus Reviews