Read an extract from “The Adventures of Yaya: Soup Joumou Lakay Grann Pola” by Tico Armand and Angie Bell
The Adventures of Yaya is a 12-book series focusing on history, culture, and language, specifically Haitian Kreyol. Yaya is witty, smart, and adventurous. We intentionally focus on history, culture and language to help leverage education and learning. The cognitive benefits of a child learning a second language is endless and second to none. Culture increases a child’s awareness, appreciation, and inclusion of diverse beliefs which maximizes a child’s academic achievements and educational success, while history provides identity and helps us understand how society can change and develop through awareness of past mistakes and behaviors.
Yaya’s first adventure takes us to one of her favorite places to be on a bright Sunday morning, the backyard of Nana Pola. Nana Pola’s backyard is where Yaya learns the story about her forefathers and how much they enjoyed soup joumou. Yaya and her family had a great Sunday full of storytelling about heroes and mermaids all while enjoying a great bowl of soup joumou in Nana’s backyard. The concentration is on being the first black republic to gain its independence in 1804, the importance of it to Black History and the traditional “soup joumou” we have on the 1st of January every year.