Kele's Secret

Teya Rosenberg is an assistant professor of English specializing in
children’s literature at Southwest Texas State University.

Yoanes lives with his grandmother Koko and grandfather Akwi on a coffee
farm in Tanzania, where one of his chores is to gather the eggs that the
family’s hens leave in hidden places. When Kele, Koko’s “most
unusual hen,” starts laying her eggs in a very secret place, Koko sets
Yoanes the task of finding that secret. Yoanes trails Kele and, after a
frightening test, he finds the eggs and is able to go to market with
Koko.

Beautifully written and illustrated, the seemingly simple story of
Yoanes’s search for Kele’s eggs is more complex than it may
initially appear. Catherine Stock’s illustrations reinforce the idea
of hide-and-seek introduced by Yoanes’s daily hunt for eggs; as he
trails Kele, the child and hen are often in the background, where we,
the readers, have to search for them. Yoanes also goes on a hero’s
journey: he must persevere in following Kele, even when she goes into a
scary place where Yoanes thinks he sees a Nenauner, a half-rock,
half-human creature. He follows the hen and finds the eggs, and
afterwards considers himself “ quite a hero” as he brings his prize
back to the village.

Kele’s Secret has a lot to offer both as an enjoyable and
multileveled story and as an introduction to life on a Tanzanian farm.
Included is a glossary of Arusha Maasi terms. Highly recommended.