Room for Everyone Review

Room for Everyone

Written by Naaz Khan

Illustrated by Mercé López

Bibliography

Khan, N. (2022). Room for everyone (M. López, Illus.). Atheneum Books for Young People.

ISBN 9781534431393

Summary

Room for Everyone is a rollicking counting poem that reflects the vibrant cultural setting of Zanzibar, an archipelago east of Tanzania in the Somali Sea. Zanzibar is a busy port and trade center bustling with Swahili and Arabic influence. In the back matter, Khan notes that there are many cultural influences in Zanzibar life: Bantu, Indian, Omani, Persian, and Portuguese. Khan reflects that influence throughout her poem, referencing local customs, food, and activities as her main character Musa and Dada ("Sister" in Swahili) take a zany ride to Nungwi Beach on a "daladala" (shared mini truck with benches inside), picking up too many people to fit (43-44). López complements this cultural inclusiveness in her lushly chaotic illustrations. By the end of her crazy ride, Musa learns that with enough goodwill, you can always "make room for everyone" (14).

Analysis

As the daladala begins its route to the beach, Musa's adventure begins. "The daladala rumbled and roared" on its path with strong consonance in the "d" sounds, and the expressive onomatopoeia of "rumbled" shows the passenger experience inside the vehicle (10). The poem's rhythm and rhyme is steady and carries through the entire ride, making it very fun to read aloud. We pick up an Arabic man with one bike. The reader infers he's Arabic based on Lopez's rich illustration depicting typical Arabic clothing. Then a herder with two goats squeezes onto the daladala. This continues through milkmen, fruit vendors, mamas with fish, and my favorite: seven kitenge (batik cloth) umbrellas (43). The color saturation of this illustration is deep and the graphics on the kitenge umbrellas are sharp. It's a pleasure to look at (24). López's illustrations also include a wide variety of Arabic and Swahili dress, hairstyles, clothing, and skin colors. It is reflective of the vibrancy of the Zanzibar cultural nexus. Khan includes a variety of satisfying onomatopoeic and alliterative words to describe how everyone makes room for each other on the daladala: wiggles, giggles, shuffle, squirm, squeeze, smushed. Everyone arrives sweaty but happy to the beach. The reader is also sweaty but happy from the rhythms and rhymes at the end of this adventure. But we all know, we can "make room for everyone" (14).

Highlighted Poem

I chose this page of the poem because it reflects the happy-go-lucky feeling of the story and is a good example of the merging of the happily chaotic illustrations by López and rollicking words by Khan.

The tires were reeling and

    spinning and burning,

        the passengers sweating and twisting and turning.

            Elbow to shoulder! Beak to nose!

                Feathers to feet! Udders to toes!

            What a sight to see! What a comical crew!

        Stick together like globbidy glue!

    They clunkity-clunked, like junk in a trunk!

        So close to a break-down—

            kerplunkity-plunk!

How can a reader not love an unabashed use of "clunkity-clunked" and "kerplunkity-plunk"? You must embrace the absurd and go along for the ride.

Use

We are definitely making batik-like art using crayons for the wax element and using an iron to melt the crayon drawing (following these instructions). Students can draw the daladala or any other elements from the story and make batik bookmarks.