Photos: Gilbert Students Meet ‘Gombey Baby’
The children of Gilbert Institute in Paget received a surprise visit when the real-life character of a new storybook, “Gombey Baby” by J.K. Aspinall, appeared in their assembly.
Unperturbed by the large number of curious, older children, the toddler made himself quite at home and appeared to enjoy looking at the children as much as they enjoyed looking at him. He even gave the impression that he recognised the baby in the story as himself as he turned the colourful pages of vibrant artwork.
Inspiration and model for the story, seventeen month-old Norhyon DeRoza Brown and his mother, Dy-Juan, met author-illustrator, J.K. Aspinall, at Harbour Night this summer.
Ms Aspinall said that as soon as she saw the baby, she knew he was the magical child she wanted to grace the pages of the story she had conceived two years ago. “Open up the first two pages of the book. When Norhyon’s face appears, you are hooked,” said Aspinall.
The story follows the aspirations of a mother as she sings to her child of dressing him in yarn fringes and peacock feathers. She foretells that he will follow the footsteps of his heritage of the drums through Africa, the plains of American, and into the Caribbean. He will bring these influences of the drum home to Bermuda where he will dance, dance, dance to the “Rata-Tat-Tat” beat of the Gombeys.
And as Ms. Aspinall read the Gombey Baby, the Gilbert students responded with a “Rata-Tat-Tat” of their own, a wonderful musical accompaniment.
Asides from entertaining the children with Gombey Baby, Ms Aspinall also read from another new book called “Goodnight Bermuda”. She previously read to children at the St. George’s Prep and also Purvis in Warwick.
One of her greatest experiences with schools, however, she said, was the overwhelming reception at Francis Patton. “Santa is giving each child at that school one of our books for Christmas. The school truly supports Bermudian authors.”
The Bermudian author is available for school appearances and can be contacted through her website
Pina.bm.
The author’s appearances for Gombey Baby book signings are: City Market in Bulls Head, Saturday, 8:00a.m. to 12:00p.m., Brown’s Bookmart, Saturday, 2:00 p.m. to 4:00p.m., St. George’s Olde Time Market, Sunday, 2:00p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
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