Shannon Gibney and Charly Palmer Sam and

Sam and the Incredible African and American Food Fight

SHANNON GIBNEY

ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHARLY PALMER

Six-year-old Sam, with his Liberian dad and African American mom, finds a way to bring everyone in his cross-cultural family together at the dinner table

“From Shannon Gibney and Charly Palmer comes a wonderful story filled with our childhood memories and illustrated with astonishing colors. I loved this book because it brought back my own food experiences with my grandmother. A fantastic and worthy addition to any collection!”

—Siman Nuurali, author of the Sadiq Series

Rice and okra soup: Sam’s auntie from Liberia made it, and it’s Dad’s favorite. Mom, homegrown in Minnesota, made spaghetti and meatballs. And Sam? He’s just hungry, but no matter what he chooses to eat, someone will be disappointed. Caught in the middle of his family’s African and American food fight, Sam gets a little help from his grumbling stomach—and readers of this seriously funny book by Shannon Gibney get a peek at cultures colliding in a family kitchen that work out in a very delicious way. Charly Palmer’s vibrant and captivating illustrations make this gentle lesson in getting along a bright and colorful visual feast as well.

Cassava leaf torbogee or homemade sausage pizza? Sam’s family recipes bring Sam and the Incredible African and American Food Fight to an apt and happy ending. Readers can decide which dinner is best—but, really, why not have both?

Shannon Gibney is a writer, educator, activist, and author of See No Color and Dream Country, young adult novels that won Minnesota Book Awards. She teaches writing at Minneapolis College, where she is faculty in English. Gibney is a Bush Artist and McKnight Writing Fellow, and her upcoming books The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption and When We Become Ours will be published in 2023. She lives in Minneapolis.

Charly Palmer is a fine artist, illustrator, teacher, and mentor. His book illustrations include There’s a Dragon in My Closet, Rainy Day Rocketship, I Can Write the World, All Boys Aren’t Blue, and Mama Africa, for which he received the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award.

CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOK

$17.95 Cloth/jacket ISBN 978-1-5179-0965-9 $17.95 Retail e-book ISBN 978-1-4529-6895-7 APRIL 48 pages 45 color plates 10 1/2 x 8 Ages 5–9