Jummy at the River School by Sabine Adeyinka

Jummy at the River School by Sabine Adeyinka

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have had Jummy At The River School on my radar for a while; it’s the first of a series of school stories detailing the adventures of Jummy at her new boarding school set by the beautiful Shine-Shine River. The River School is the best boarding school in Nigeria and when Jummy passes the entrance exams, she is thrilled to become a new girl there. Yet her best friend Caro, from a family of less privilege and wealth, does not have this option. Her family cannot afford the school fees and so she and Jummy must be separated.

I liked this very much and will look out for the next. It’s a very charming and quietly told school story. There’s a deliberate concern for friendships and relationships and generally Being A Good Egg which I liked a lot. It also deals quite gently with issues of privilege and classism which are perennially vital discussions to have, I think, in this genre, so I welcomed that and the delicacy of it, very much.

One of the things that I also really valued was Adyeinka’s sense of space and quality of storytelling: she is very, very good at telling you where the girls are in the world and what they’re eating, tasting, experiencing. Whether it’s the handfuls of puff-puff that the girls eat or the distant shine of the river, this is a school story that knows very firmly what it is and what it wants to share with the reader and I liked that very much.

In terms of reading, this read quite young so it might work well for somebody who is just coming to terms with longer middle-grade fiction, trying to gain a bit more confidence in their reading, or for somebody who wants a nice bedtime read.

I also found myself thinking about other books that would work well with this (I always like it when a book starts to suggest ideas to you and tells you where about in the world it might work best!). I think there’s potential, for example, in connecting Jummy to things like Alice-Miranda at School; Hi So Much and Pea’s Book of Big Dreams. Think of rich, gentle storytelling that focuses on people and you won’t go far wrong.




View all my reviews