CanLit for LittleCanadians: Malaika, Carnival Queen

June 12, 2023

Malaika, Carnival Queen

Written by Nadia L. Hohn

Illustrated by Irene Luxbacher

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-850-3

32 pp.

Ages 4-8

May 2023

Malaika, whom Nadia L. Hohn introduced us to in Malaika's Costume (and revisited with Malaika's Winter Carnival and Malaika's Surprise), is always joyous with colour and exuberance. But it's family that brings her the most happiness. In Malaika, Carnival Queen, family is no less important but there is an element of grief that is wrapped in that familial warmth.

From Malaika, Carnival Queen by Nadia L. Hohn, illus. by Irene Luxbacher

Malaika lives with her Mummy, her new father Papa Fred, her Grandma, her new sister Adèle and new baby brother. But she's dreaming of a man carrying a basket of fruit, handing her a mango. Malaika believes it a dream about her father and her mother confirms it. Grandma gives Malaika a photo of her daddy working on a fruit farm with a message "To Malaika, my likkle one." He'd come to Canada before them to work on a farm, but he'd become ill and passed away without them.

From Malaika, Carnival Queen by Nadia L. Hohn, illus. by Irene Luxbacher

They decide it's important for Malaika to learn more about her father, so they take a trip to the farm where he'd worked, meeting some men who'd worked with him. They speak of his love for his daughter and his dream to make a carnival like back home. Malaika is invited to be the Carnival Queen for their upcoming harvest festival to which she agrees.

Malaika is ready with her carnival peacock dress, but she has a plan to make the parade extra special and ensure that "home" is at the heart of the event.

Malaika, Carnival Queen is an involved story but at its heart it's about family and home. Malaika has a family, but she has lost her birth father and needed to know more about him. With him showing up in her dreams, it was time to learn more. Nadia L. Hohn gives us the Malaika whom we've grown to love through her earlier books but in Malaika, Carnival Queen we are introduced to another side of her, that which has experienced loss. With Malaika's father as a migrant worker, Nadia L. Hohn opens the discussion with children about families who are separated through immigration, particularly because of farm work. Though the story of migrant farm workers is one of hardships, that's not the story that Malaika, as the daughter of one, needed to hear. She needed to connect with her father through his coworkers and through a carnival, and Nadia L. Hohn does that for the little girl.

From Malaika, Carnival Queen by Nadia L. Hohn, illus. by Irene Luxbacher

That connection of family and place comes through Malaika's creation of a carnival flag of home. It's a banner of colour and heart and memory, and all those are depicted in Irene Luxbacher's illustrations. The artwork, created in gouache, soft pastels and found papers, gives the story both a softness of purpose and a quilting of connection. Those media are perfect for a story of loss and finding connection but also making connection. Irene Luxbacher, who has illustrated all four of the Malaika books, gives the colour and the boldness of a child with high spirits, but she also gives us tenderness for the loss felt by Malaika and others as well as a collage-feel that comes from kinship.

As Malaika grows older, Nadia L. Hohn shows us more sides to the little girl and her family, but she always keeps her as one with sensitivity. She may be a carnival queen but she's also a daughter, a granddaughter, a sister, and a friend, all which make her truly impressive and inclusive.

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