This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. Readers and listeners who meet this lively child for the first time in this universal story will likely be intrigued enough by her mixed-race family and her culturally different but oh-so-similar life to go on to other Anna Hibiscus episodes, in both picture and chapter books.Ī double pleasure for old friends and new readers alike.Ī paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere. There’s lots going on inside their cluster of homes, too. There are fascinating details, especially in the endpaper scenes showing Anna's family’s modern African home in its urban context. Her body language is remarkably expressive in Tobia’s colorful illustrations, spots and full-page scenes that often spill across the gutter. Anna’s strong emotions will be familiar to any older sibling. Angry and jealous, Anna hides and cries, but soon it is her turn for some attention and affection. Not surprisingly, all the adults in her extended family are either suddenly busy or still sleeping. Soon, she’s introduced to the new babies: “That big bump was brothers,” she tells her cousins. This gentle, appealing story begins on the title page with Anna Hibiscus resting against her mother’s obviously pregnant tummy.

When twins arrive, Anna Hibiscus finds it hard to share her extended family.Ītinuke’s latest picture book is not so much about “Amazing Africa” as it is about adjusting to a new sibling-worse, two of them.

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