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Title: Welcome Home Anna Hibiscus Author: Atinuke Publisher: Walker Books Number of pages: 111 Genre: Fiction Age: 6-8 Available here and at Terrakulture, Victoria Island, Lagos. Price: N1,100 MY SUMMARY The Anna Hibiscus series revolves around a little girl called Anna Hibiscus. She is a vivacious girl with a sunny disposition and a curious mind, which makes the series a funny read. Anna Hibiscus lives with her mum, dad, aunties, uncles and cousins in a big white house in an African Country (that is not mentioned in the book). In this book, we follow Anna’s adventures as she carries an egg around until it hatches into a chicken and becomes her ‘son’, visits her friend Tiger Lily in the city and attempts to be a ‘mother’ to a spirited and naughty chicken who gets Anna and itself into a lot of scrapes throughout the book. THUMBS UP AND DOWN UP: It’s a good story about a little girl which will resonate with little girls all over the world. I laughed a lot at the trouble that Snow White, the chicken, got Anna into. I also loved the image of communal life in the outskirts of the city painted by the writer. The pictures (almost one very page) make this a fun and easy read. DOWN: It propagates the idea that Africa is a country. Words like ‘Africanly’, ‘traditional African courtesy’, ‘a good traditional African girl’, etc., almost made this book an unpleasant read for me. RATING 3 stars TRIVIA 1. Who was named after a popular beverage in Nigeria in the 1990s “Pronto”? The old he-goat 2. Tiger Lily had these in her house instead of people: Screens/Television sets 3. Two girls were named after flowers in the book: Anna Hibiscus and Tiger Lily 4. Anna’s friend from Canada: Tiger Lily. 5. Who had the name of a fairy tale princess: Anna’s chicken, Snow White 6. What did Snow White do to Aunty Joly when Tiger Lily’s daddy came to visit? He landed on her head and flew away with her head tie.
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This article was first published on 30th July 2015

ugochinyelu

Ugochinyelu Anidi is a lawyer and a children’s literature enthusiast. She blogs at ugochinyeluanidi.wordpress.com and tweets @UgochinyeluA

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