Olu and Greta

Starred review from August 30, 2021
In Ejaita’s absorbing picture book debut, Black cousins Olu and Greta live near Lagos, Nigeria, and in Milan, Italy, respectively, and “they have never met each other in person! How would they?” Ejaita highlights each child’s landscape and pet—Olu spends more time among flora with a turtle, while Greta tends to stay indoors with a cat. Still, the duo finds ways to connect despite the distance. Though they cannot reach one another by skating, parade, or spaceship, each cousin participates in the same activities, video-calls, and sends boxes containing “pieces of their lives to one another, instead.” Based on her personal experience of having a Nigerian father and Italian mother, Ejaita juxtaposes the cousins’ lives through spare prose and artful pencil and digital illustrations, featuring pastel-like colors against black backdrops, which also serve as the cousins’ skin tone. A salient reminder that love and connection transcend difference and distance. Ages 3–5.

December 1, 2021
Preschool-Grade 1 Anyone who has lived far from family will connect with the tale of Olu and Greta, two young cousins separated by oceans. Olu lives in Nigeria, while Greta is in Italy. Employing beautiful, highly stylized graphics, Ejaita tells a tale of the cousins' parallel lives and long-distance friendship fed by absence. As children, they separately dance, pretend to fly, imagine they're in space, and enjoy the parade, despite growing up in different locales. Yet through all of that, they are somehow together: the vivid illustrations use just five colors, and with both children existing in the same color palette, their lives don't appear to be so different. They dream of adventures together and share pieces of their lives the way they can--via video calls and old-fashioned mail. Particularly in the age of COVID-19, many young readers will relate to keeping in touch with extended family virtually, and Olu and Greta give a glimpse of what that kind of relationship means over time.

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January 1, 2022
In a story inspired by her own childhood, Ejaita introduces us to cousins Olu and Greta. Although they live in different countries and on different continents -- Olu in Nigeria; Greta in Italy -- and have never met in person, they are good friends. They talk over the internet, mail packages to each other, and are connected through their related hobbies, games, and interests, which span time and place. Their interactions are described in spare, accessible text ("They cannot get to one another by walking") and pictured in eye-catchingly distinctive digital and pencil illustrations. The identical black background palette for both settings serves as a visual representation of the cousins' connectedness, while rich hues and bold textures inspired by the cultures of their respective homelands beautifully explore their activities and backgrounds. The final image in the book gives readers a hint that the pair may someday meet, with an illustration of two young people taking a selfie together. Maija Meadows Hasegawa

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from September 1, 2021
A tale of two cousins who find ways to be together despite the distance between them. Olu lives in Lagos, Nigeria, and Greta lives in Milan, Italy. The narrator emphasizes that since they reside on different continents, they can't get to each other by walking or skating, by parade or dancing, or several other means. While they could travel by car, boat, or plane, for now, they visit each other virtually and imagine what they might do together when they can meet in person. Ejaita created the illustrations on black paper with colored pencils and digital techniques, and because the characters' faces and features are drawn on the unillustrated space on each page, Olu and Greta are literally black, with fine white lines that define their features. Perhaps this signals that just as the presence of the color black is ubiquitous in these visuals, Black people can and do live everywhere, countering the notion that people of African descent are monolithic. On nearly every spread, Greta and Olu engage in the same or similar activities, emphasizing that they have a close relationship despite living far apart. Some of Ejaita's illustrations show the pencil lines, making them highly textured and almost tactile. Along with the dominant black backgrounds, Ejaita, herself of Nigerian and Italian heritage, uses a limited color palette for each spread, giving the book a retro look. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A compelling bicontinental story of kinfolk, uniquely illustrated by an artist who's lived the experience. (Picture book. 4-7)

COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2022
In a story inspired by her own childhood, Ejaita introduces us to cousins Olu and Greta. Although they live in different countries and on different continents -- Olu in Nigeria; Greta in Italy -- and have never met in person, they are good friends. They talk over the internet, mail packages to each other, and are connected through their related hobbies, games, and interests, which span time and place. Their interactions are described in spare, accessible text ("They cannot get to one another by walking") and pictured in eye-catchingly distinctive digital and pencil illustrations. The identical black background palette for both settings serves as a visual representation of the cousins' connectedness, while rich hues and bold textures inspired by the cultures of their respective homelands beautifully explore their activities and backgrounds. The final image in the book gives readers a hint that the pair may someday meet, with an illustration of two young people taking a selfie together.

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)