Winner of the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award

Winner of the Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration
Finalist for a Governor General’s Literary Award, Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books
Finalist for a Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Books Award

When a young girl visits the site of Africville, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the stories she’s heard from her family come to mind. She imagines what the community was once like —the brightly painted houses nestled into the hillside, the field where boys played football, the pond where all the kids went rafting, the bountiful fishing, the huge bonfires. Coming out of her reverie, she visits the present-day park and the sundial where her great- grandmother’s name is carved in stone, and celebrates a summer day at the annual Africville Reunion/Festival.

Africville was a vibrant Black community for more than 150 years. But even though its residents paid municipal taxes, they lived without running water, sewers, paved roads and police, fire-truck and ambulance services. Over time, the city located a slaughterhouse, a hospital for infectious disease, and even the city garbage dump nearby. In the 1960s, city officials decided to demolish the community, moving people out in city dump trucks and relocating them in public housing.

Today, Africville has been replaced by a park, where former residents and their families gather each summer to remember their community.

Key Text Features
historical context
references

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.6
With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.3
Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.4
Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.7
Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

Shauntay Grant is a poet, playwright, interdisciplinary artist, and children’s author who lives and works in Kjipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki (Halifax, Nova Scotia). A former poet laureate for the City of Halifax, she “creates artworks that are engaging and accessible, but also challenging, rigorous, and informed by deep research” (Royal Society of Canada). Her play The Bridge (Playwrights Canada Press) premiered at Neptune Theatre’s Fountain Hall, a co-production between 2b theatre company and Neptune in association with Obsidian Theatre Company. Set in a rural Black Nova Scotian community, this multilayered story of a family torn apart by betrayal received eleven Robert Merritt Award nominations, winning four, including for Outstanding New Play by a Nova Scotian. Grant’s first stage play Steal Away Home won the Jury Award for Outstanding Drama at the Atlantic Fringe Festival. Her other plays include KK (Boca Del Lupo, Red Phone project), Passing (Eastern Front Theatre, Micro Digitals project), and the ten-minute monodrama Beyere (Obsidian Theatre Company, 21 Black Futures project). An associate professor of creative writing at Dalhousie University, Grant holds professional degrees in creative writing, music, and journalism. Her theatrical work for young audiences has toured with Neptune Theatre’s Tour Company, and she has been commissioned by Against the Grain Theatre to write the text/poetry for Identity: A Song Cycle. She is the editor of the anthology From the Ashes: Six Solo Plays (Playwrights Canada Press) which collects groundbreaking solo plays by Black Canadian women and womxn. Her first solo stage play is in development with 2b theatre company. Grant is the author of several books for children including My Fade Is Fresh (Penguin), When I Wrap My Hair (HarperCollins), and Africville (Groundwood), which won a Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award and was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award. Her other honours include an Established Artist Recognition Award from Arts Nova Scotia, a Poet of Honour prize from Spoken Word Canada, a Joseph S. Stauffer prize from the Canada Council for the Arts, and Arts Nova Scotia’s inaugural Black Artist Recognition Award.

Shauntay Grant's profile page

EVA CAMPBELL is an artist and illustrator who teaches visual art. She has exhibited her work in Canada, the US, the UK, Barbados and Ghana. Eva won the Children’s Africana Book Award for her illustrations in The Matatu by Eric Walters. She also illustrated Africville by Shauntay Grant, winner of the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award and the Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration, and a Governor General’s Literary Award finalist. Eva lives in Victoria.

Eva Campbell's profile page

• Short-listed, Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award
• Short-listed, Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award
• Winner, Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award
• Short-listed, Governor General's Literary Award, Young People's Literature - Illustrated Books
• Winner, Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration
• Commended, CBC Books Best Canadian YA and Children‚Äôs Literature
• Short-listed, Elizabeth-Mrazik Cleaver Award

[A] gorgeous and radiant ode.

Vancouver Writers Fest

Shauntay Grant’s writing is graceful ... She reaches out to young readers and invites them in ... Visually, Africville is gorgeous. Eva Campbell’s illustrations are arresting; the colours are warm and inviting, and her painterly style enhances the dreamlike quality of the story.

Quill & Quire

The writing is spare but emotional, and the art brings the community to life. A loving tribute to a history that should not be forgotten.

Kirkus Reviews

[Shauntay] Grant’s perfectly paced free verse poetry has a gentle, hypnotic quality that flows through the narrative and invites the reader to savour each word and the myriad images the words evoke. Eva Campbell’s illustrations are bold, bright and filled with energy and motion. . . . [A] vivid portrait of what Africville once was.

Atlantic Books Today

The simplicity of [Shauntay Grant’s] story engages readers of all ages and backgrounds, and it brings to light a dark period in history in a completely accessible and very beautiful way. There is a melody to Grant’s poetry that entrances, and, when paired with Eva Campbell’s vivid illustrations, the former thriving community comes to life. . . . Africville is destined to become a picture book classic . . .

CM: Canadian Review of Materials

This story celebrates the beauty and joy of the community seen through a child’s eyes. . . . There is both pride and longing expressed in the lyrical text, and the vibrant colors and friendly compositions of the oil and pastel illustrations immerse readers in this community.

School Library Journal

The reader travels on a special journey in both text and visual memories in Africville. . . . Africville is a delightful book for classrooms and public libraries looking for a gentle storybook as well a tribute to the history of a place that should not be forgotten.

Resource Links

Through the poem, readers visit this sparkling seaside community . . .. Grant's evocative descriptions are perfectly matched in tone and timbre with Campbell's vibrant oil-and-pastel renderings of the town and its residents.

Booklist