Niki Daly Quotes

This wonderful story set in South Africa tells how Jamela gets carried away by the gorgeous material her mother buys to make a dress to wear at Thelma’ s wedding. Wrapping it around herself, she shows it off to all her friends. How beautiful it is and how beautiful she is in it. But parading the material around in front of her friends gets it damaged and Jamela feels terrible when she realises what she’ s done.

Jamela’s dress is an adorable story that follows an African girl as she wears her mother’s expensive fabric and parades throughout the town. The artwork is fairly realistic and lends a style to the book that flows from page to page.

The illustrations are vibrant and Jamela’s Dress is a lovely story of a young African girl who loves dressing in her mother’s expensive fabrics, she takes it to parade around town but when the fabric is ruined, Jamela has to face the consequences.

“It’s beautiful, Mama” said Jamela, stroking the crisp new material. “Yes, it’s beautiful. It costs a lot of money -- but I need something special to wear for Thelma’s wedding”, said Mama.

And Mama was. Mama was so upset that she couldn’t even look at Jamela. She just looked at the dirty, torn material and said sadly. “What am I going to wear for the wedding?” Everyone felt sorry for Mama and cross with Jamela. Even Jamela was cross with Jamela. She hadn’t meant to ruin Mom’s material. It just happened.

Jamela (who must be about the age of five) set herself to the task of watching her mother’s fabric for her new party dress. Buuuuut... well... she got a little carried away taking it to show everybody. And the fabric is ruined. There’s a bit of a contrived happy ending, though I guess children mightn’t realize it.

Mama is very pleased with the dress material she has bought for Thelma’s wedding. Jamela can’t resist wrapping the material around her and dancing down the road, proud as a peacock, to show Thelma her beautiful dress! When things go wrong, Mama is very sad indeed, but there’s a happy ending just in time for Thelma’s wedding day

Dreamily, Jamela swayed between the folds of material as they flapped and wrapped around her into a dress. When Mama heard nothing going on, she called “Are you looking after my material, Jamela?” There was no answer.

The incorporation of background images and settings tells the reader that this book is indeed taking place in a foreign country, and there are words from the African language translated in portions of the book. Despite the obvious African setting, this is a universal story that could take place in any country to any little girl. The colors in this book are stunning, and the story heartwarming.

Jamela’s Dress is a heart-warming post-apartheid South African picture book about a little girl who just can’t resist her mama’s new, expensive dress fabric. Instead of looking after it while it hung to dry, Jamela wrapped herself up in the beautiful fabric and paraded down the street, causing it to get dirty and torn. Everyone is upset with Jamela, including Jamela herself, until Archie, a local photographer, saves the day just in time for Thelma’s wedding.

“Malusi liked doing things slowly. He sang a little after he had pulled on this T-shirt. He played a little and then he put in his shoes - his tackies. There were very old tackies. When they were new they had belonged to Mongi.”

“But instead of passing by the shoe shop, Gogo went straight into it! Malusi looked at Gogo’s old shoes. There were like worn-out tires on an old car. “How much are those red tackies in the windows?′ asked Gogo.”

“Soon it was time to cross the busy road again. The light was green, so over they went. They passed the flower seller and the clothes shop. Here was the shoe shop with the bright red tackies looking so clean and new.

In South Africa, a young black boy shares a special day with his grandmother when they go into the city on a shopping trip.

Shepherd is going shopping in the big city with his Grandma Gogo. They travel by bus and wander around the city doing their shopping and as a treat for keeping her company Gogo buys Shepherd some brand new red trainers.

“Mr. Motiki’s dog was still barking at someone coming up the road. Only an old person would walk so slowly. She walked a little and then stopped to lean on her stick for a while.”

Shepherd is going shopping in the big city with his Grandma Gogo. They travel by bus and wander around the city doing their shopping and as a treat for keeping her company Gogo buys Shepherd some brand new red trainers. This thrills Shepherd as he only usually gets hand me down clothes and shoes from his big brother!

“Gogo was old, but her face shone like new school shoes. Her hands were large and used to hard work, but there were gentle. She rested her hands on Malusi’s shoulders and said, ‘I need someone to help me today.’ Malusi kept quite and listedes carefully.”

“Malusi liked doing things slowly. So he walked a little, and then he stopped to kick an old beer can. Twang! The can danced down the street. Gogo walked slowly behind. ‘Haai!’ Gogo sighed. She was out of breath by the time they reached the bus stop.”

“As the bus terminal Gogo sat down to rest. Malusi sat next to her with his feet up on the bench so that he could look at his new tackies. ‘You know, Glogo,” Malusi said softly, ‘these are vey nice red tackies.‘”