Why does Amadi’s mother insist he learn to read words? Why should an Igbo boy of Nigeria, who will become a great trader, waste precious time on books?
When he runs off to the market instead of sticking around for a reading lesson, he encounters a much-admired older boy secretly reading at a book stall, and then Amadi becomes intrigued by a storybook with pictures of a strange white creature that has a carrot for a nose. Unable to shake his questions about the snowman, Amadi discovers the vast world reading can open up—especially for an Igbo boy of Nigeria.