Let change color your child’s world with this book
Cooking under quarantine – back to basics
Caribbean Life, May 15-21, 2020 25
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
You don’t wanna.
Your favorite toys are in a
box and you don’t wanna leave
them there. All your games,
your stuffies, your outside toys,
packed away. You said goodbye
to your friends and teachers
because your family is moving
and you don’t wanna. But as in
the new book “Southwest Sunrise”
by Nikki Grimes, illustrated
by Wendell Minor, just wait.
When you get there, you might
see things in a different color.
Jayden was not happy one
little bit.
His father had gotten a new
job in another state, in another
part of the country, and Jayden
hated everything about it. He
loved New York and its skyscrapers
and lights and busyness.
From the airplane, he
looked down at New Mexico
and all he could see was shadows.
It almost made him want
to cry, except he was too big
for that.
He went to bed, feeling really
sad. In the morning, though,
there was a sliver of sunshine
peeking through a window that
had no bars on it. Jayden saw a
mountain that looked kind of
like a rainbow, and that was a
big surprise! He figured that
would be just about the only
color he’d see all day because
“browns and tans are the only
colors deserts are good for.”
He grabbed the field guide
his mother gave him, he opened
the door, and got another big
surprise!
In the grass behind his
house, there were wine-colored
flowers and “yellow bells” and
orange and yellow and red and
orchid all “dancing… in the
wind.” His house was kind of
pink. There were green trees
nearby and colorful birds on
the branches. And the sky? It
was a color of blue that Jayden
didn’t quite understand. He
found lizards and bones and
shells and all kinds of interesting
things to look at.
Still, he missed the “wow”
of New York and the size of the
skyscrapers – until he saw that
the desert had another surprise
for him…
If there’s one thing we
adults have learned lately, it’s
that change is hard. When
you’re small and your world
has turned opposite, it’s doubly
difficult. “Southwest Sunrise”
may be able to help.
Right at the beginning of
this story, author Nikki Grimes
acknowledges that Jayden is
unhappy and a little uninformed,
both of which are validations
that might get kids
and parents talking. There’s
no minimizing of the main
character’s concerns, neither
in story nor in the telling of
it; instead, Jayden’s concerns
are taken seriously but with no
drama on the part of his parents.
That matter-of-factness
steadies this tale, never letting
it get out of hand on either side.
Parents may also appreciate
the leeway that Grimes gives
her Jayden: in his new home,
he’s allowed the freedom to
explore, which is another nice
change.
Add in the soft illustrations
by Wendell Minor, and you’ve
got a soothing book for trying
times. If that’s what your
child needs now, “Southwest
Sunrise” is pretty and pretty
perfect.
Miss it? Your child won’t
wanna.
“Southwest Sunrise” by
Nikki Grimes, illustrated
by Wendell Minor
c.2020. Bloomsbury
$18.99 / higher in Canada
40 pages
Book cover of “Southwest Sunrise” by Nikki Grimes.
By Vinette K. Pryce
Throughout the years Bush
doctors in the Caribbean have
always maintained a mantra to
“let your food be your medicine…
and your medicine your
food.”
Like devout proponents of the
Rastafarian edict they have used
the tag line to infuse awareness
of the benefits of eating green
healthy foods.
In fact, to many, a great deal
of their practices resonated as
nothing more than primitive
precautions from unlicensed
medicine men or radical alternatives
from shepherds of Ethiopia’s
Emperor Haile Selassie I
to shun conventional methods.
However, now that the longrejected
practice of Rastafarians
shaking hands with strangers,
not conforming to consuming
pounds of beef, white flour, rice
and bread, or opting to eat ital
(vegan/vegetarian) have become
the millennial preference, adapting
some of these principles
might not seem as far-fetched
a regimen but in post pandemic
quarantine might prove a
simpler and healthier lifestyle
choice.
Elders too in the Caribbean
have long been reputed to clinging
to old-fashioned methods of
maintaining health.
On the island of Jamaica most
recommend a booster of Seven
Seas Cod Liver Oil as a kind of
armor to protect their beloved
from colds and influenza.
Their simple routines of gargling
with warm salt water;
inhaling steam from boiling
water, applying Bay Rum soaked
scarves to reduce headaches,
cooking more vegetables and
applying leaves and herbal remedies
when popping a pill or
reaching over the counter to
purchase pharmaceutic chemicals
might seem more convenient.
Consider the practice of
cooking with coconut oil, coconut
milk, ginger, scallions, garlic,
making various porridges
– banana, wheat germ, oatmeal,
sea moss, cornmeal — choosing
fish over beef – dried cod,
herring, mackerel and sardines,
aloe, ackee, calaloo, bananas,
plantains, drinking juices from
sour- sop (guanabana), tamarind,
pineapples, making soups
with ground provisions – yams,
sweet potatoes, pumpkins,
dried peas and beans – gungoo
(pigeon peas), lima, red kidney
beans, cho-cho (chayote).
From a Third World habit
of washing chicken with vinegar,
scouring fish with limes
and rinsing rice before cooking,
this millennium age generation
could benefit with a result of
enhancing their immune system.
Add the recently acclaimed
embrace of integrating lemon
grass aka fever grass to the
mix and even pouring a bit of
over-proof white rum to a concoction
of honey and lemon
or lime juice when ticklish or
raspy throats burgeon recently
became viral social media suggestions
to thwart the infection
rate of Covid 19.
Nostalgia resurrected the
granny-endorsed nebulizing
procedure surrounding inhaling
steam using a towel, salt
water, garlic, onion, eucalyptus
or orange peel. As a combatant
to defeating the dreaded
coronavirus only application of
Vicks vaporub inside the nostrils
or rubbing Tiger Balm to
the chest area proved a defiant
weapon.
Along with those less tasteful
doses of castor oil usually
consistent with the end of
the mango season – and prior
to the back to school period
for students — the regimen of
cleansing the body holds merit.
Traditional Caribbean methods
seems to be emerging a regimen
to stave off the pandemic
now wreaking havoc throughout
the state and nation.