Drawings from Angola

Book excerpt: For children from age 8 to 14. "Drawings from Angola" present an introduction to an African story telling tradition. The tales are illustrated with marvelous drawings made in the sand. The book conveys the stories of the stork and the leopard, the hunter and the dog, the rooster and the fox, and others. It explains how to execute the drawings. The reader is invited to draw tortoises, antelopes, lions, and other animals. The activities proposed throughout the book invite the reader to experiment and to explore the 'rhythm' and symmetry of the illustrations. Surprising results will be playfully obtained, such as in arithmetic, a way to calculate quickly the sum of a sequence of odd numbers. Children will live the beautiful mathematics of the Angolan sanddrawings. Answers to the activities are provided. The book can be used both in classrooms and at home.