Jemmy Button

Written and illustrated by Jennifer Uman and Valerio Vidali

A boy's journey from his homeland to a foreign world reveals the cost of forced civilization.

3.6 Goodreads · 343 ratings

48 pages· 584 words· Est. 5 min read-aloud· ~680L

$16.99Save 6%

In stock. Also at Amazon or Bookshop.

Bookroo's summary

Orundellico, known as Jemmy Button, is taken from Tierra del Fuego to England in the 1800s, exchanged for a single pearl button. Immersed in a world of top hats and gowns, he navigates the alienating experience of forced civilization. Despite new clothes and concerts, Jemmy remains an outsider, caught between two worlds. Will he ever truly belong, or is he destined to remain a stranger in both lands? This poignant tale explores themes of identity, belonging, and the haunting echoes of colonialism, leaving readers to ponder the true cost of cultural assimilation.

From the publisher

A beautiful collaboration based on a true story.

Exchanged for the single mother-of-pearl button that gave him his nickname, an indigenous Tierra del Fuegan boy named Orundellico spent many years in England in the early 1800s as part of a failed experiment in forced civilization. Less a biography than an attempt to represent this alienating experience from Jemmy’s point of view, it is distinguished by lyrical prose-poetry (“Come away with us and taste our language, see the lights of our world,” the British explorers tell Jemmy) and intensely creative and beautifully conceived paintings. On matte pages, Jemmy, a paper-doll figure with red ochre skin and curly black hair, walks naked through throngs of top-hatted and gowned silhouettes, all the same shade of blue. His guardians buy him clothes and take him to concerts, but the paintings show him always set apart from his companions. “Jemmy felt almost at home. Almost, but not quite.”