Indie Press Spotlight #4

Today I wish to spotlight a wonderful, authentic, and original series — Atinuke’s Anna Hibiscus books published in the US by Kane Miller.  As she writes about herself, Atinuke was “…born in Nigeria to a Nigerian university lecturer father and an English editor mother…” and spent her early years in Nigeria before heading off to a British boarding school at age ten. As for the books themselves, she writes:

I had been meaning to write those stories for years – ever since the homesickness of my boarding school days when I discovered how little children in the UK knew about Africa and even more so as a story teller when it was clear from children’s questions how little they still knew about the Africa that I am from.

I absolutely adore these books (my gushing post from a few years back is here) and so am delighted that the final four of the chapter book series (there are also picture books) have just been published in this country. They are as warm, insightful, and real as the previous ones. The illustrations by Lauren Tobias complement the text to perfection. I have yet to come across any other books that provide younger American readers a better way to learn about one child in one place in “Amazing Africa” as Atinuke always begins these in her delightful storytelling voice.