Grandpa Cacao: A Tale Of Chocolate, From Farm To Family by Elizabeth Zunon

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This story takes place while a father and girl are heating her birthday cake. He tells her the story of her Grandpa Cacao. He was a farmer in the Ivory Coast in West Africa for cacao. The father goes on to explain the significance of his work. Without farmers like her Grandpa, there would be no chocolate for the world to appreciate.. [1]

Summary

This flawlessly illustrated story connects past and show as a girl heats a chocolate cake with her dad and learns about her granddad harvesting cacao beans in West Africa. Chocolate is the perfect treat, for everyone! As a little girl and her dad heat her birthday cake together, Daddy tells the story of her Grandpa Cacao, a farmer from the Ivory Coast in West Africa. In a land where elephants wander and the air is hot and moist, Grandpa Cacao worked in his town to harvest cacao, the most vital ingredient in chocolate. Chocolate may be a blessing to you from Grandpa Cacao, Daddy says. We can only appreciate chocolate treats much appreciated to farmers like him. Once the cake is heated, it's prepared to eat, but this isn't her as it were birthday present. There's a extraordinary surprise waiting at the front entryway. [2] 

Pros

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Zunon’s text and illustrations do an excellent job of showcasing this satisfying family story and capturing the time-consuming, labor-intensive prepare cacao farming involves. She makes it simple to recognize Grandpa Cacao as a young man by representing him and the town cacao workers in white, murky screen-print shapes. Zunon explains that she used the misty method to appear

how Grandpa “exists in the little girl’s imagination as an nearly legendary figure.” The tropical foundations of the cacao ranch and the contemporary scenes are exhausted oil paint on watercolor paper with collage elements.

[3]

Many of the books Zunon has illustrated tell important stories of the African diaspora and explore pressing issues various communities face. Others follow artists, poets, creators and icons of color who changed the world for the better. The editing presented a particular challenge for the author, who was excited to delve into the complicated, rich history of the decadent treat and the difficult, poverty stricken lives of the farmers who harvest its fruit. [4] 

In a beautiful ending, both stories come together in time and put as the oven timer buzzes and the doorbell rings, announcing the entry of the much-anticipated chocolate cake and the return of the young girl’s mother with a really special guest. The backmatter takes the frame of two twofold spreads, counting an author’s note almost her childhood in Côte d’Ivoire and her claim Grandpa Cacao, the motivation for this story. It too comprises interesting facts almost cacao, cocoa, the chocolate making prepare and the cruel realities of the cacao industry. And, of course, a formula for chocolate cake! [5]

References