My Heart Speaks Kriolu

A young girl goes on walks with her grandfather every Saturday, and he speaks of someday bringing her back home to Cabo Verde. She has never gone there and when she’s encouraged to speak Kriolu, she stumbles over her own words. It is on these walks with her grandfather that she realizes that she can smell, hear, and feel Kriolu even if she has trouble speaking the language, and with this she starts to find out where home is.

What I Liked: This book does a fantastic job of showing how children learn about culture and how they integrate it into their everyday lives. The book includes several words in Kriolu that are translated at the closing of the book. These words are easy to understand given the context clues throughout the book. As the grandfather is blind, the young girl showing him around and finding Kriolu in different senses is a strong part of the story because it isn’t about what home looks like but more what it feels like.

The illustrations throughout this book are warm and provide you with a feeling of home. They do a great job of capturing the sense of home and the small details as the young girl describes what Kriolu smells like, sounds like, and even feels like. Some of the illustrations highlight the grandfather’s story about Kriolu, showing what his memories of his home are, and how the young girl is experiencing these memories.

Final Verdict: My Heart Speaks Kriolu highlights how children come to appreciate and learn about their culture. Children ages 4 and up will enjoy learning about another culture and then discussing how their culture is seen in the things they can smell, hear, and even feel. This book is perfect for those who want to teach children about the Kriolu language, or who want to share with their children about the various ways we discover what home is.