Quick Look
A lovely story which will help younger children to understand everyday life in Nepal.
Description
Nima Sherpa lives in Nepal at the top of the world, where the tallest mountain on earth, Chomolongma—the mountain we call Everest—towers above the clouds. Nima has promised her father, a mountain guide, that she will find a way to help make the world a better place.
Every day, on the long walk to the market village where she goes to school, Nima meets porters and caravans carrying their goods to market, travelers trekking to their next lodge, and monks on their way to their monastery. After school, she meets her friend Tenzing, an old Tibetan trader, who shares some honey with her at the market place.
Whenever Nima sees someone, she brings her hands together with her fingers almost touching her chin, bows her head slightly, and says "Namaste”—the light in me meets the light in you. Her mother tells her, “When you say ‘Namaste,’ try to see the special spark of light that shines within every person’s heart.”
In Namaste! Nima learns that she brightens the day for friends and strangers alike when she shares her sweetness and light, every time she says “Namaste.”
Woven into this simple, gentle story about recognizing and honoring the sacred in one another are delightful details of daily life in Nepal.
Namaste! is lusciously illustrated by artist Amy Cordóva, with a glossary of terms at the end of the book, and an informative afterword by Ang Rita Sherpa of The Mountain Institute.
Author
Diana Cohn is an award-winning children's book author. For over two decades she has worked on environmental, economic, and global justice issues as a teacher, a media activist, and a program director for foundations with social change philanthropy missions. Her books include Namaste! and Dream Carver with Amy Cordova and The Bee Tree. She lives in Northern California.
Amy Córdova is an artist and storyteller whose art reflects soul and spirit. She has been recognized for her work as an illustrator of children's books, receiving the Wisconsin Library Award for Namaste!, and being named honor winner of the American Library Association’s Pura Belpré Award 2009 and 2010. She lives in New Mexico.
