As Big as the Sky

Inspired by the author’s encounter with a real-life Prisca and her brother Caleb’s situation in Malawi, As Big As the Sky details the close relationship between the two siblings and their subsequent parting as Caleb leaves to attend a better school in a faraway town. Prisca misses her brother but lacks the requisite money to visit him and so begins a series of entrepreneurial endeavors, making various handicrafts that the peddler Tewa Tewa attempts to sell for her to no avail. Prisca may be the main character, but Tewa Tewa is the book’s true hero, both in his efforts to sell Prisca’s creations and the many hour bike ride he accomplishes to take Prisca and her mother to visit Caleb, magnifying Prisca’s own smaller acts of kindness. The story and illustrations together show some of the hardships of living in Africa, though without being depressing, and provide insight into another culture on a level appropriate to the target age. A sweet story of siblings, determination and kindness, with subject matter supposedly intended to tug at a reader’s heartstrings, the attempt was obvious but the end result is more educational than compelling.