Fantasy beholds reality in the face, laying claim to making it more delightful when presented to readers, very much so in its interesting form.
It is even more delightful in experience, when the presentations are made with children in mind, for the worries characterized by adulthood disappear, making enough room for the un-encumbered assimilation of those things, when as children, we love to be regaled by and Didi Kanu christened Odinakachukwu is the eight year old heroine of this Children’s Literature, who give us fresh and undeniable perspectives.
Didi Kanu and The Singing Dwarfs of The North is one of the books by the Canadian-born Nigerian author, Jude Idada, who writes across genres; having won a number of awards within the creative industry, both home and abroad.
He thrusts his latest work, not just on the laps of those who read, but on the shelves of those who must realize that reading Children’s Literature, particularly this new piece from him, would better their understanding of the world where children love to be and how they would appreciate their navigation to be achieved.
In two hundred and fifty two pages and sixteen chapters, Idada embarks on a chronological story, infusing the needed fictive techniques and spattering splashes of spicy details to whet every reader’s appetite.
It is not wrong to say rightly, that children are the primary beneficiaries from this delicious read, but if J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series could have so much patronage, even from adults with penchant for magical fantasies, then this work is shoulders’ equal because its content are effortlessly relatable, characteristically fun and guarantees the ultimate satisfaction derived from a well-cooked meal.
‘The Village of Not Too Happy Beginnings’ opens the reader up to the background of Didi Kanu, where she is presented as having four siblings besides her parents.
Notably, the poverty that rocks their home does not prevent the parents from the love their children enjoy. Kene – their eldest child and son got educated, so as to support the family when he rounds off.
This paid off when he taught Didi Kanu literacy and by the age of six, she could read and write. Ede, the elderly man known in Didi’s home town of Obosi helps to birth her dreams when he tells stories about the singing dwarfs of the North.
Dreams from stories one could say and Didi sure dreamt, but hers went a step ahead, as her waking days and sleeping nights got her acquainted with fantastical realities as presented in the work.
‘The City of Strange Smells and Crowded Streets, marks another turn in Didi’s life; change enveloped her from Obosi to Lagos where she felt the brief bitter pill of dislike spill on her tongue.
The Big Aunty Who Does Not Like Small Children shows how cruelty towards children could damage a child, however Uncle Ikenna and his wife – Aunty Nonye are Didi’s best gifts, but Aunty Nonye’s step-mother known as Big Aunty almost destroyed the little heroine, but she failed.
One could draw lessons of physical limitations of a child and the need for immeasurable love and protection for the same little one time and again. To Sing or Not To Sing is the fourth chapter that leads to revealing the purpose of Didi’s personality and journey to Lagos.
Always resorting to the songs taught her by Ede and the companionship of Kaliko – the dwarf she sees each time her eyes are closed, the heroine leads the pack in this voyage of intrigues; from the familiar to the strange and further into the better- imagined unbelievable.