Customer Reviews

Yoruba Girl Dancing

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In the novel Yoruba Girl Dancing the author Simi Bedford describes the life of a young girl through the trials and tribulations of her life. The main character Remi is born into a privileged large Nigerian family. At the age of 6 she is sent to a very exclusive all girl boarding school in England. Feeling alienated because she was the only black girl in a school full of perfect English girls. She gets ridiculed for her culture and race. It isn't easy being different, but Remi has to cope with it and she needs to understand that people are different. In dealing with this and going to school, she has to realize who she really is and what she truly stands for and believes in.
This novel is very interesting, yet sometimes slow. Often relating to the main character I thought that this book was generally an easy read. The vocabulary was slightly challenging at times. The authors use of poetic detail was beautiful. " The music poured through our veins and we flowed with the beat, each separate portion of our bodies winding and unwinding seamlessly as if we had no bones."
The way she writes even the slightest thing like listening to music makes you want to read on. I would recommend this book to the grade levels of seven and eight. I think that they could both appreciate and understand the text at this age. They might also be able to relate to the main character. The topic isn't that serious, and the vocabulary is generally easy. I really don't think that it is that interesting to someone older than that because of the maturity of the characters in the book. It also deals with problems that most people face in middle school. Once you are in high school you may not exactly know who you are yet but you do have opinions. Overall I would rate this book

Simi Bedford wrote a novel called Yoruba Girl Dancing. It's about a little girl name Remi Foster who was born in a Nigerian family, in Africa. She loves her family and accepts the way of life. She lives in an extended family and lives with love and culture all around her. But when she is around six years old she is moved by her father to England to become a perfect little English girl. She is sent where she is the only black girl in a school. She goes through being teased by her classmates, about her culture, and of what race she is from. Her family told her they would come back and she discovers lies.
She has to celebrate her holidays with strangers she has never met before. She realizes that she has to learn two different cultures and must make a choice which one she takes, which makes her Yoruba girl dancing.
The way she confronts the teasing and taunting shows me that she is a strong person. The book it's self I liked. The culture that is shown through a little girl's eyes is amazing. How her friend wants to make a spell on another girl just because she doesn't like her makes me laugh. I see myself when I was little and how my family was different to others families. It showed me that I was not alone. Simi the author, must have experienced the same thing when she was growing up. Remi is a strong girl. Remi lives most of her life in a different country, different culture and manages to survive with no one really shows her and guides her. She is ready for anything that comes across her path.
With a strong plot and exciting story and I would want any one in their pre-teens to read this book. If they like to read about change and differences in some ones life I would recommend you to read this book. It would lead you through a wave of emotions.

Imagine being brought up in a huge house split into two; to where when you go downstairs you are in your Grandmothers part, then when you venture upstairs you are in your Grandfathers part. That's how life is in the life of Remi Foster, the main character in the novel by Simi Bedford, Yoruba girl dancing. In this novel Remi had to navigate through the maze of races, classes, and culture.
Yoruba girl dancing is set in the time after the second world war. And to me personally I find these times a very interesting time to read, watch and learn about. This novel to me wasn't as interesting as I thought it was going to be when I first picked it up and read the overview on the back of the novel. This young girl, Remi, who was born into a wealthy black family, was taken away from what was familiar to her and forced into a boarding school. The thing is that she's the only black girl in the whole school. The plot sounds interesting but the novel itself didn't keep my interest long.
Yoruba girl dancing is a novel for those who are interested into how horrible it was to be an African in these times. Even the wealthiest Africans had to deal with racism in these times. The novel is very well written and at sometimes is very confusing. The author includes how large Remi's family is and makes sure in include each and every family member in the novel.
I would think most readers will find this novel very interesting and add it to their collection, but as for me, I wouldn't add this novel in my home library because of how confused I got by all that happens and all the people who enter and leave the novel.

This was a beautifully written novel. And its perspective is delightfully unique. I've been waiting for years for Bedford to write another book.

The novel Yoruba Girl Dancing written by Simi Bedford is about an adolescent Nigerian girl named Remi Foster. She lives with her strict and obedient family in Nigeria. Remi Foster grows up in a household of great love and her kind yet strict grandfather, one of the richest men in Lagos. In this household, "we spoke four languages, and two of them were English.'' (Bedford 1) The Fosters preserve the English culture very well England and Remi even has a white English step-grandmother on the motherly side. Remi's early life is filled of enthusiasm, warmth, feasts, celebrations, and laughter. But soon her life is distorted before her eyes.
At age six and not at all prepared for separation, she is obligated by her father to attend an English boarding school, where she's not sure whether it's worse being the article of prejudice or of interest and curiosity. Here Remi is faced to concur racism. Each summer she longs for home and she stays with her English relatives.
Remi's childish and honest simplicity allows her to make political points without didacticism; always pondering over why people in dull England refer to her sunlit home as "darkest Africa.'' (Bedford 116 ) Remi is vigorous, but her experiences still break the reader's heart. Such as when she sees her father and uncle for the first time in five years, Remi asks with her finest English manners, "How do you do, which one of you is my father?'' ( Bedford 130)
This story of a young African girl's alteration into an upper-class English schoolgirl is very touching and I would recommend it to young women who may be experiencing any discomfort or isolation. I feel that by reading this novel, she may easily relate to Remi's inner feelings and it may give her a sense that she can overcome the pain.

I have no idea how this book came into my possession, but I am glad that it did. This book is great - entertaining, frustrating, thought-provoking, etc. Remi, the main character, was an absolute delight. Her descriptions and observations of people and goings on were hysterical - I laughed out loud several times while reading this book (her description of her father's actions in London had me in tears). She was also a very brave little girl who handled the various situations that she found herself in with such skill and grace that I had to keep re-reading passages to find out how old she was at various points. For a different kind of coming of age story, please check this book out.

...Remi Foster was born into a Nigerian family living in Africa. She celebrated life with love and happiness until the age of six, when her father sent her away to an all girl boarding school in England. At this point, she discovers that she is the only African-American girl around. Being in a school with girls who spoke only English was the hardest thing that she faced, besides having to cope with the amount of race, evil and culture surrounding her.
This story is well written but hard to understand at certain points. You must follow along with the author at all times or you will most likely be lost and find yourself overly confused. By making the mistake of falling behind in the story, you will find yourself overwhelmed with details and possibly have to cram in several chapters at a time to know what is going on. Read a chapter or two a night and not only read it once but twice if possible, making the book easier and more fun to understand. I recommend this book to anyone who can keep up to pace and who can handle difficult sentences and advanced grammar structure.

Yoruba Girl Dancing
Yoruba Girl Dancing starts out with Aunt Rose saying, `Africans can talk oh!' (Bedfrod,1). One of the many qualities this little girl has is she lives in a privileged Nigerian family house. They can speak many different languages, which is just an example of their educational back round. Remi Forster is a young girl who lives in a huge house in the middle of a small African town. The house is ran by her Grandparents, but to the readers surprise, neither grandma or grandpa will talk to each other. The book is based on the religion of Yoruba. Remi's whole story is based on this religion and she uses it to help make all of her decisions.
The book was written in a very unique way. The author tells the story as in a little girls viewpoints and life. The book informs the reader of the Yoruba people and the daily struggles of outcast. At age six, Remi was taken from her wealthy grandparents home, to where her father felt she would grow best, in an all-girl boarding school in England. Remi doesn't fit in at all. She is the only black girl in the whole school. The author used very descriptive words to describe what Remi was feeling and thinking. It makes the reader feel sad, but the suspense of what would happen to poor Remi is over -powering.
This book is recommended for people who want to learn more about a world religion. It explains great aspects of the Yoruba's and all about their practices. Also, this book is recommended for people who enjoy sad stories about a young girl growing up and reading about her struggling through life. The book teaches the reader a lot about how to be strong in a time of need, and how to work through hard situations. Anyone who reads this book will learn an important lesson.

The Book "Yoruba Girl Dancing" By Simi Bedford was a very blan book. There wasn't much excitment in it and it didn't catch my eye very much. The book is about a girl named Remi who lives in Europe with a very rich family. She lives with her grandmother and father who take care of her. Her parents live in a different house in a different town. Remi's father decides to send her to another school far off in Europe with her sister who attends a different private school. The whole time she is away at a private school she lives with different people when she is on a holiday. This story tells about her overcoming the frightning experience of being an African American girl in an all white school. I would recomend this book to young girls around the age of 11 to 14.
The author did in fact do a good job in writing the book, it just didn't catch my eye very well.