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HomeNewsArchivesThe Bookworm: Take a Splash with Anna Hibiscus

The Bookworm: Take a Splash with Anna Hibiscus

“Splash, Anna Hibiscus!” by Atinuke & Lauren Tobia
c.2013, Kane Miller $14.99 32 pages

“Look, Mom!” You probably say that 10 times a day. You want to show her something, ask a question or just get Mom to see what you’re doing. Sometimes it’s hard to get her attention, but if you’re like the little girl in “Splash, Anna Hibiscus!” by Atinuke & Lauren Tobia, you might go ahead and have fun without it.

It was a beautiful, sunny day on a beach in Africa. That’s where Anna Hibiscus lives, and it’s where her whole family was relaxing.

Everybody was having fun. Papa was with Uncle Tunde, and they were visiting with fishermen. Some of the cousins were on their phones, some were playing soccer and Chocolate was dumping sand on Angel. Even Mama was busy.

Anna Hibiscus watched the ocean waves as they splashed and laughed. She wanted so much to splash too, and she wanted everyone else to come with her!

She asked Angel and Chocolate, but they were digging in the sand. They invited Anna Hibiscus to play in the sand with them, but that’s not what she wanted to do.

She asked Benz and Wonderful to splash with her in the waves, but they didn’t even hear her. They were playing ball with beach boys and that wasn’t what Anna Hibiscus wanted to do either.

She asked her girl cousins if they would like to go play in the waves, but Clarity, Joy and Common Sense said they were messing with their phones and were “too big now for playing.” Anna Hibiscus didn’t want to hear “too big,” so she stomped away to watch the laughing waves some more.

Mama was braiding hair. Auntie Joli was working beneath an umbrella. Auntie Grace was cooking corn. Papa was standing by a boat, deep in conversation and everybody knows that men don’t stop talking. Even Grandmother and Grandfather were busy asleep beneath their newspapers.

Anna Hibiscus looked at the waves again. She wanted to splash in them. They wanted to splash with her too. They were laughing and dancing. She started laughing too.
And then Anna Hibiscus jumped….

If you can’t tell by looking at the cover of this cute book, there’s a lot of joy in the story of a little girl who just wants to play in the water. Author Atinuke and illustrator Lauren Tobia, in fact, make this one of the happiest books you’ll ever read to your children: there’s no pouting, no whining, just glee in what lies beyond the sand.
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The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. Terri has been reading since she was 3 years old and never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 12,000 books. Her self-syndicated book reviews appear in more than 260 newspapers.

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