Rate this book

Anna Hibiscus (2007)

by Atinuke(Favorite Author)

4.16 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

140630655X (ISBN13: 9781406306552)

languge

English

genre

Middle Grade & Children's

publisher

Kane Miller

series

Anna Hibiscus

review 1: Summary Anna Hibiscus, lives in a large house in a compound in "amazing Africa" with baby brothers Double and Trouble, parents and extended family. Her father is black African and her mother is white Canadian. The first title in this appealing new series introduces Anna's world. The family goes on vacation, auntie visits from America; Anna learns what it is to do hard work and she gets an invitation to visit her Canadian grandmother so that she can finally see snow. My CommentsThis is book one in a delightful new series about a young African girl, Anna Hibiscus, and her life with her large and loving family in present day Africa. Each chapter in this book is a standalone story which starts the same way – “Anna Hibiscus lives in Africa. Amazing Africa.” And it ... moreis amazing! African today is a mix of old and the new. There are cell phones and texting, but there are also family goats, and traditional dress. Anna is lucky enough to live inside a compound in a big white house with balconies and secret stairways. Outside the compound there are modern skyscrapers, but there are also shanty towns and poverty. The writing is simple and elegant, with a cadence that shows that author Atinuke is also a storyteller. Some of the characters speak with an African accent. The stories are simple and believable with a subtle moral that never comes across as preachy or didactic. The black and white illustrations are just right – not too detailed but just enough to show just who these characters are without stereotyping them. I really liked this book. I loved the African flavor and it reminded me very much of Alexander McCall Smith’s Ladies Detective Agency series for adults. This is a great early chapter book that girls would probably like more than boys
review 2: What a lovely story. The book showcases four different chapters with individual stories contained within about Anna Hibiscus, who is a young girl growing up in Africa with her large, loving family.In the first story Anna, her father, her mother, and Anna's two baby brothers go on a vacation away from the family, but discover that it's very difficult to take care of babies and cleaning all by yourself. The next day, all the aunties come to help. But that's not quite enough--and so all the big cousins come to help, and so on, and so forth, until the whole family is together again, and everyone is happy.The second story introduces Anna's Auntie Comfort, who lives away across the big wide ocean in America. She's coming to visit, but Anna's grandfather is worried that she lost her African values. Anna sends her Auntie secret texts in the hopes that Auntie Constance won't forget, but she needn't have worried.In the third, Anna wants to sell oranges on the street like the other girls outside her house. She has bright, healthy oranges and a clean dress, and sells many more oranges than the other girls, but when her father, uncle, and grandfather wonder what upset the girls selling oranges outside--some of them in very difficult life situations--Anna realizes that she made a mistake. She amends for it by working hard the next day, bringing all the other girls oranges, and at the end, she's proud of how hard she worked.The last story focuses on Anna's desire to see snow. Being half Canadian, her grandmother lives far away in Canada, and Anna sends her a letter, hoping to get a chance to visit when it snows. She waits very patiently for the letter to come back, and finds, to her delight, she has been invited for Christmas.Each story has a subtle moral and message, and teaches the reader something about African culture without being heavy-handed. They are light, beautiful reads, and Anna is easy to relate to. Highly recommended. less

Download links for: Anna Hibiscus

Advertising