Yetunde: The Life and Times of a Yoruba Girl in London

by Segilola Salami

Yetunde is a series of stories that follows the every day life of 6 month old Yetunde as she's narrated African folktales by her mom Iya Yetunde whilst growing up in London. Iya Yetunde also tries to improve her Yoruba speaking ability, so we see a nice mish mash of Yoruba and English. The folktales are of West African origin.

64 pages, Paperback

First published August 16, 2015

About the author

Segilola Salami is an author, blogger, freelance writer and host of The Segilola Salami Show podcast.

Her daughter shares her love for books and now has a segment on the show where she reads books for early readers, key stage 1. Click here listen to one episode of the show with Segilola Salami's daughter.

According to Segilola Salami:
"As an author myself, I believe that we all need all the support we can get in promoting our work.

That's why on my blog, I accept content by other authors, in the hope that one of my blog followers may be interested in getting a copy of that book. This is all for FREE and my website RSS feed has close to 2 million subscribers.

There are two options available:
1) Please click here to submit an interview featuring a character from your book of fiction.

2) Please click here to submit an excerpt from your fiction or non-fiction book.

If you need to please send me an email via my website contact form

."


Segilola also writes paranormal romance as Elizabeth Salawu

Reviews

[J.P. Willson · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be completely honest, this is not something I would even attempt to read to a child simply because I did not understand it myself. A portion of the book is in another 'made up' language that was not really translated to the point of understanding. The morals of the stories would not be comprehended in my opinion by younger children unless fully explained by the reader thus taking away from the point of reading the story in the first place. Illustrations were few, again taking away from the experience for younger children. Being a parent I know my own daughter would have had no interest whatsoever in this. Unless I have completely missed something here, simply speaking I just did not see what the attraction for a child could be.

[E.M. Swift-Hook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stories for Yoruba children

‘The tortoise was a wise and cunning animal, but one day he decided that he would like to be the wisest animal in the world.’

This book tells us the story of Yetunde - a baby who speaks only the language of angels so her mother and Aunt Zainab can’t understand her. Frustrating for a baby! We dip between nappy changes and feed times (from Yetunde’s point of view) and buggy rides and a trip to the swimming pool. Oh and the wonderful Nigerian folk stories that Yetunde is told by her mother and her aunt.

The book is written in a very baby-esque sort of way that mostly stays in and captures how one might imagine the world from that perspective. The language of the main narrative is very much ‘write as you speak’ - but then it is the inner dialogue of Yetunde. the folktales are written in true storyteller style. There are passages here and there in Yoruba, which didn’t spoil the book for me and would be perfect for a Yoruban youngster growing up in an English speaking country.

“When I dey look the guy videos ehn, mehn my ovaries dey dance alingo. I dey buy the guy market no be small thing.”

The main problem I had with this book was that it did not stay child-friendly throughout. The inner shouts of ‘BOOBIEEEEEEE’ are probably acceptable, but the bit where Yetunde’s mother declares a singer on a YouTube clip makes her ovaries dance, is just too adult for the rest of the book, IMO. As a result, it is hard to endorse it as a children's book. If the author were to remove those much too adult elements it would easily earn another star from me.

If you have a young Yoruba child, with parental supervision and explanation, this book might be a very good read together. And no matter your birth or heritage those Nigerian folktales are well worth a read with or without the enclosing narrative.

[Chris Heidlebaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing book! I truly did not want to put it down!

And I do believe its true... "No one person can have all of the wisdom in the world!"

Such an amazing work of art and I believe the author did an amazing job!

[Vasudha Uttam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book.

In starting it doesn't catch my interest but later, the folk stories and baby's viewpoint to see the things, intrigued me.

Good moral at end of each story!

[Richard Becker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is so much more than just a ‘children’s book.’ It is an excellent look into both the mind and life of a baby. Yes, I wrote baby, and you need to read this book. It is well worth your time, and [now or later] your child’s time.

The set-up: we are transported into a few days in the life of a baby, narrated by the baby herself. No, this is not like the “Look Who’s Talking” movies. This story is fun and realistic; the baby’s narration is age appropriate but interesting to adults; and the events depicted have probably occurred in every person’s life, when he or she was a child.

To add to the story’s attraction to children [and also to adults], each chapter includes an interesting parable. This does not detract from the flow of the narration; in fact, these simple tales add to the story’s value to young children and provide an excellent segue from one chapter to the next.

To add to the realism, interspersed with the mostly English narration, the baby’s mother speaks the Yoruba language [an African language]. Personally, I do not know this language, and did not try to translate it. However, translating it is not important. The use of the language is minimal; its use does not affect the flow or meaning of the narration; and although people who can read the language may receive additional meanings from the story, this is not a detriment to non-speakers. Instead, its sparse use adds authenticity to the story, and adds a flavor not normally found in children’s books.

All in all, this book is an excellent read for children, whether read to a child by an adult or read by the child himself/herself. And in a weird but good way, it’s also an excellent treatise for adults on what a baby might be thinking. Believe it or now, you’ll probably be a better parent for reading this story.

Five stars. Read it to your child, now. If you don’t have a child, read it for yourself.

[Kilby Blades · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept for this book was very cute: it was meant to be a look into the daily consciousness of a baby girl living in London. Whereas our society tends to think of babies as not hip to what's going on around them, our protagonist here is a savvy little thing. The primary entertainment value of the book is intended to be anecdotes told by the baby--stream-of-consciousness-style observations that feature mommy, milk, and a favorite aunt. The final element of this book is small handful of folk tales that I feel I've heard before and that I doubt are by the author. The idea that having stories read to her is part of this baby's world makes total sense.

Reviewing this work, therefore, is a matter of reviewing the pieces narrated by the baby, whose voice was problematic. General editorial problems could be seen throughout the book (e.g., changes in tense, point of view slippages, lack of translations where they were sorely needed, etc.) and I feel that authors who charge for books should make sure they've been well-edited.

Beyond proofreading and copy issues, there were big character problems. The baby was, at times, quite savvy to the ways of the world; the contrast between her age and her savvy was the intended source of humor. At other times, the baby was played up as being very naive, seemingly to achieve the same effect. I love other writing that's told from the baby's POV (I'm thinking of "The Honest Toddler") but this baby--this protagonist--did not have a consistent, credible voice, nor did secondary characters.

Overall, I thought the author had talent and a strong concept, but really needed an editor.

[Emma Jaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this little book, but I found it a little confusing. It isn't a book for children, despite the cover, but its target audience appears to be limited to people who speak Yoruba and there was quite a lot if dialogue in that language, which wasn't usually translated.
The book follows the daily life, a very ordinary daily life of a typical six month old girl and her mother living in London. Baths, dinner, visits to the swimming pool, nappy changes and the layout of her small flat home. I think these things are fairly common to all mothers, I certainly went through them, but reading about them wasn't particularly interesting.
The folk tales were by far the most interesting part of the book, and these could be told to an older child, who might understand the moral meanings of the tales as an arrogant animal, mostly a tortoise gets his comeuppance.
To be a successful children's book it would need some illustrations. In summary, a nice little look into the daily life of a baby with some folk tales only one of which I'd come across before.

[Jane Blythe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is an interesting mix of life as seen through a six month old baby, and West African folktales. I have to say I much preferred the West African folktales, they were interesting little stories with a moral, an interesting way to teach kids about things such as kindness, ungratefulness, keeping promises, greed, manipulation and lying. It also teaches about the Yoruba language, an interesting addition to the book. The bits of the book that were focused on the baby Yetunde's day to day life didn't appeal to me as much, but probably might have appealed more to kids, I would have preferred a few more folktales and a little less about the baby's mother's visitors and trips to the store or pool. Overall though an interesting read for kids that teaches them some morals and about another culture.

[Ana Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this children's book. I love old fables and they were told in a creative and unique way. I wish there had been more illustrations to go along with the story but the lack of them did not take away from the quality of the book. The only thing I struggled with is the language used in parts of the book, it wasn't translated so I wasn't sure what the character was saying. However the story flows enough that you can get the main idea of what the character were saying without knowing the exact words. Fun and cute and an easy read, I would defiantly recommend :)

[P.S. Winn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that teaches the same type of morals as say an Aesop Fable would. I found it interesting and a good read, the morals were cute and well told. I have a bit of a problem with a 6 month old telling the story, and find when the actual short morals are told the story flows better, but because the tales are fun and well written, this book gets a 4 star review. It is a plus for readers to get a look into a different culture and language.

[Jack Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Segilola Salami uses an entertaining story to teach sound principles to young children. The story is narrated by baby Yetunde. This would be a great bedtime story. I would recommend the other book in this series as well. Yetunde: An Ode to My mother

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Recap: Yetunde tells the reader about her day, from her point of view as a baby and interspersed with traditional African folktales.

Review: A rather odd little book. I enjoyed the folktales more than the baby prose which was a bit unexpected and at times felt ridiculous. I was also disappointed that the Yoruba dialogue wasn't translated, I don't mind having a foreign language in a book I'm reading but I do like to know what it's saying. I understand what the author was trying to do, mix traditional storytelling with modern life, but it didn't quite mesh for me.

[Gina Schwartz · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not understand the point of this book.