“Legna” is angel spelled backwards. This is a story about two children, born the very
same day in the same hospital to different families, growing up as best friends
when one day something extraordinary occurs. They are both young girls, playing all the time together, and become inseparable.
Rose, is rich, but as we learn is poor in personal empathy; whereas Tamara is
poor, but richer in personal human kindness and spirit. In Boma Akainy’s illustrated children’s book
titled Angel Legna, the plight of
these two girls are brought together in a children’s story teaching how they
react to meeting a sorrowful character of physical disproportion, grotesque, homelessness and hungry. A “test,” if you will, is brought to these
girls from God in order to have each of the girls determine their own true
depth of love and understanding; each girl has to make a decision which will
decide their future for their eternal souls.
One day, when the girls were eleven, they meet Legna on
their way to school. Legna is a malnourished,
slight and awkward child, wearing only a loincloth and begging for food, saying
only, “Hungry, food.” Rose teases him,
and has a snobbish attitude whereas Tamara is kind to him, and offers him some
of her sandwich. The next day they see
Legna again and the dichotomy of reactions between the girls becomes even more
highlighted. Rose not only shuns Legna
but also teases Tamara for being kind to him, as Tamara offers to bring Legna
into a market and buy food for him. These character traits – Rose’s teasing and Tamara’s benign kindness - becomes
the basis for the lessons portrayed in this book. Boma Akainy uses her story, along with
striking illustrations, to exemplify Biblical justice. Essentially she portrays how all souls start
with equality and having the freedom of choice, but it is how they use these
choices which foreshadow each of our own destinies.
"Angel
Legna" is a powerful children’s story.
Much unlike something Dr. Seuss or other nursery books portray, Boma
Akainy hits hard with an unforgettable lesson.
It is best suited for children a bit older than pre-school. It’s not a “happy lesson” but an important
one; whereas Rose becomes destined to a year of service as an angel to others,
in a form of punishment for her uncompassionate behavior, as Tamara is blessed
with blissful splendor being rewarded for her empathy. This book has an
interracial message combined with moral fortitude, and is very well suited for
contemporary school and personal libraries.
It is the type of message that haunts the minds of all that read it, and
perhaps will make this world a better place, one person at a time.
