Good Luck Anna Hibiscus!

by
Atinuke

illustrated by

Lauren Tobia

Kane Miller, March 2011, 112 pp.
ISBN: 978-1-61067-007-4

Genre: Early Chapter
Subgenres: African Stories
Reviewed: 10/14/2011

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Anna Hibiscus's New Clothes

Anna Hibiscus lives in Africa. Amazing Africa. Hot Africa. Dry Africa. But soon, very soon, Anna Hibiscus will fly in an airplane over land and over seas to visit Granny Canada, her mother's mother. Yes, Anna Hibiscus is going to Canada. Cold Canada.

Anna was wondering about cold when her mother came into her room.

"Anna Hibiscus, it is time to sort you out for Canada. You will need warm clothes for the cold."

Anna Hibiscus looked in her cupboard. There were bubas and wrappas. She was not sure that anybody wore bubas and wrappas in Canada. There were strappy dresses. But they were for hot weather. Anna spotted two dresses Auntie Comfort has sent from America. They both had long sleeves and one even had a petticoat. Anna Hibiscus took them out. She was not going to be cold in Canada!

Anna Hibiscus's mother looked at the cotton dresses. She looked in the cupboard. She went to find Anna Hibiscus's father.

"Anna Hibiscus has nothing warm to wear in Canada," she said. "What are we going to do?"

"Don't worry; we'll find something," he said.

Grandmother and Grandfather and the aunties and uncles and cousins were called to look for warm clothes for Anna Hibiscus.

Everybody in the big white house joined in the search. Boxes and bags were pulled out from under beds and off the tops of cupboards. Clothes stuffed into the bottoms of wardrobes were shaken out and examined.

"That is no good!" her mother said.

"WARM! WARM!" Uncle Tunde shouted to Auntie Grace.

"Don't touch my bottom box!" Joy shouted at Sweetheart. "Those clothes are all too big for Anna Hibiscus anyway!"

Auntie Joy said to Miracle, "Look! It fits you! Too small for Anna Hibiscus."

"How cold can it be in Canada?" Grandmother shouted, when Grandfather held up a long, woolen scarf. "Do you want to suffocate the child?"

Anna Hibiscus was glad everybody was finding clothes for her, but in the end, after everybody had finished looking and shouting, there were only two long-sleeved, cotton dresses laid out on Anna Hibiscus's bed. Grandfather's old scarf (from the time he had fallen into the lagoon and caught a cold), two undershirts which were too small for Wonderful, and some long gray socks which the aunties used to wear at school.

Anna Hibiscus looked at the boys' undershirts and Grandfather's scarf and the old gray school socks and her two dresses. She had a miserable feeling.

Synopsis

Anna Hibiscus is a young African girl that lives with her very large family in Africa. Her father is from Africa while her mother is from Canada. In the wonderful land of Africa, Anna has many adventures and learns some lessons along the way.

The book is divided up into four short stories. Each story is approximately 27 pages long. The following is a brief synopsis of each short story:

Hermattan Garden - Anna loves to look at and spend time in the garden that surrounds their big, white house. One morning, Anna notices that the garden appears to be wilting. Clarity explains that every year the hermatten winds blow in from the Sahara Desert and covers everything with a fine layer of sand. Anna Hibiscus's family has their own well and they use that water to wash the sand off of the plants in the garden. But when Anna Hibiscus notices kids outside her gate who have no water to drink, she realizes that the garden is not as important as the thirsty people outside.

Double Trouble for Anna Hibiscus - Double and Trouble are Anna Hibiscus's twin baby brothers. Koko, Anna's parrot, likes to hang out in the garden high in a tree. One day, Double and Trouble notice the bird and start yelling, "Koko! Koko! Koko!" over and over again. They want one of his pretty feathers. No one can stop them until Grandmother and Grandfather take them inside for a nap. When Grandfather and Grandmother fall asleep, Double and Trouble sneak outside and find the Auntie Joly's sweets jar. Anna wakes up and tries to take the jar away from her brothers, but their yelling wakes everyone up. When everyone goes outside to see what the ruckus is about, they find Anna Hibiscus covered in candy wrappers holding the sweets jar. Double and Trouble are nowhere to be seen.

Anna Hibiscus's New Clothes - As winter fast approaches, Anna Hibiscus will be flying to Canada for the first time to visit her mother's mother. But Anna Hibiscus has no winter clothes, as she lives in hot Africa. Her large family searches for some warm clothes for her to wear in Canada, but they find very little. Grandmother, Joy, Clarity, and Common Sense take her into town to buy some oyinbo clothes, but they are too expensive. Poor Anna Hibiscus. How will she ever be able to get some clothes she can wear in the freezing cold weather of Canada?

Good Luck, Anna Hibiscus - Anna Hibiscus has only one week to go before she leaves on her trip to Canada. She doesn't have anything to do, so she tries to spend some time with Grandmother, Grandfather, Miracle, Sweetheart, Angel, Chocolate, Clarity, Wonderful, Benz, Joy, Common Sense, Sociable, Uncle Biz, Uncle Habibi, Uncle Tunde, Mother, and Father. All of them are too busy to spend time with Anna Hibiscus, so she goes out into the garden and hangs out with Koko. This goes on all week. With one day left before she flies to Canada, Anna Hibiscus cannot figure out why no one wants to be with her. Will anyone even miss her when she is gone?

Good Luck Anna Hibiscus! is the third book in the Anna Hibiscus series. It is written by Atinuke and illustrated by Lauren Tobia. This series is intended for early chapter readers ages 4 to 6.

Review

Good Luck Anna Hibiscus! is another fun-filled book about life in Africa starring Anna Hibiscus and her large family. The central theme in this book centers around Anna Hibiscus's upcoming trip to Canada. Anna cannot wait to see and feel snow for the first time. Her mother is Caucasian and from Canada, but no one from Anna's family has ever been in freezing cold weather before . . . except her mother.

Once again, the artwork by Lauren Tobia is entertaining and fits this book perfectly. The stories by Atinuke are entertaining and Early Chapter Readers will read this book over and over again.

I really enjoy the Anna Hibiscus stories. I studied Africa in college, but that was long ago and news of that continent really doesn't reach America very much. Kids today in America know very little about Africa, African people, and the African way of life. The books never mention what country Anna lives in, but I would guess that Anna is not your typical African little girl. After all, she lives in a big, white house and the family seems to be pretty well off. Early Chapter Readers do get exposed to more of Africa when Anna travels outside her yard and interacts with other African people, be they well-off store employees or poor children selling oranges in the street so they can buy food to eat.

Overall, Good Luck Anna Hibiscus! is a great book that I highly recommend. The subject matter is different than a lot of other Early Chapter books about American kids. It is good to expose children to all forms of society and will help them to become well-rounded individuals. So, if you are looking for a book, or a series, for your Early Chapter Reader, I suggest you go out and pick up a copy of this book, or series, today. Your kids will love it.

I rated this book an 8½ out of 10.