1016 Balmoral Road, Victoria, BC, Canada V8T 1A8
1016 Balmoral Road, Victoria, BC, Canada V8T 1A8
★“Moving and bittersweet…Discusses the reality of slavery and the racial violence and prejudice formerly enslaved individuals experienced.” — Booklist, starred review
In 1841, a 12-year-old enslaved boy, Edmond Albius, made history when he discovered how to hand-pollinate vanilla plants using a bamboo twig.
Until that time, only bees in Mexico could pollinate the plant—botanists couldn’t figure out another way. With his master, Edmond travelled around Réunion Island to share his technique, le geste d’Edmonde (Edmond’s gesture), which is still in use today. Despite his important achievement, as an enslaved person Edmond didn’t receive payment or recognition for his contribution to science, eventually dying in poverty after being freed from slavery in 1848. Today it is recognized that Edmond’s method of pollination was key to bringing vanilla to the world, helped to create a billion-dollar industry and gave us the flavor we love to use in cooking, baking, medicine and, of course, ice cream.
Ann Richards is a Jamaican Canadian writer from Brampton, Ontario. She enjoys studying and writing about different cultures and has always wanted to write books about African history. One day she plans to visit Ghana’s Elmina slave castle, and its Door of No Return, to research more stories. Ann has written for the London Free Press and Tekawennake News. The True Story of Vanilla is Ann’s debut book.
Arden Taylor is a Toronto-based freelance illustrator. A graduate of Sheridan College with an honors bachelor of illustration, she enjoys digitally creating colorful illustrations of architecture and people and designs for wallpaper and other projects. Her clients include Hazlitt Magazine and the California Institute of Technology, and her work has been featured in various magazines, newspapers, advertising campaigns and websites.
