Brown Girl in the Snow

About this book

Amina and her family move from the Caribbean to a new country where there are no coconut or mango trees and no delicious sweet potatoes. Instead, it’s cold, and it snows. 

Yet, when Amina’s schoolteacher organises a school trip to a greenhouse, Amina is inspired to help grow some of her own plants, including sweet potatoes. 

In the process of her enthusiasm about plants, Amina makes friends with her classmates, who also miss the food and plants of home, and gradually falls in love with her new country. 

Author Yolanda T Marshall’s thoughtful text about a little girl moving to an unfamiliar new country is touching, as are Marianne Ferrer’s vivid watercolours. Inspired by Marshall's own experience of moving to Canada from Guyana, this is a personal and profound story about belonging and how things like food and plants can have an important impact on how we feel at home. 

Marshall uses the popular song 'Brown Girl in the Ring' to chart Amina’s developing feelings about her new country and her place within it in an effective and interesting way, giving the reader a repetitive element to sing along with as they listen to Amina’s story.