Veritatis veniam quas reiciendis dolorem.

Eh, not really worth going out of your way for. The cover is cute as a button which grabbed my attention in the library and why I checked it out. Julia seemed to have some sixth sense about the book and kept skirting around reading it until I put my foot down that we at least give it a try. I should have listened to my kid. First Mimi is born and Mimi, or, rather, MIMI is short for M'bewe Iecine Magalee Isabella. Now, is it just me or is it a tad bit hard to know how to pronounce those first two? I can work with the second one. But maybe a little help would have gone a ways with the first name? I probably butchered it when reading and since it came up about 8 times throughout the book one can probably guess how annoying this was. There are other words with no definitions or pronounciation given. Shekere and claves are two musical instruments. That's all we get. Well, what kind? What kind of music do they make? What ways can they be played? Where are they, if they are at all, portrayed in the illustrations? We do find out that 'lapas' are wraps of cloth, skirts in other words. So, MIMI goes to her Mom's dance class with her and the kids usually sit out for the most part. One day Natasha joins and Natasha is wearing all the funky, unmatching clothing (we never find out why this is after it's mentioned one time) and she's taking the class WITH her Mother. I don't get this part, MIMI says she looked pretty when the other girls get a little snotty but then makes a remark about her dancing being not great. Nothing is here with this. Just the remarks. Nothing as a filler so the reader can know the why. It falls flat. Natasha has a tutu that MIMI (annoying isn't it?) wants. Her family hooks her up with a lapa because that's what "suits" her. I take issue with this. Is this the only type of skirt that suits her? Can a tutu not suit her? Why? Because she's African? Instead of coming across as celebrating heritage it comes across as stereotypical. "Here MIMI, wea