Too Small Tola Makes It Count
Atinuke, illustrated by Onyinye Iwu
Walker Books

This is the fourth book in the enchanting series set in Nigeria featuring Tola who lives in a small flat in Lagos, Nigeria, with her older brother, Dapo, and sister, Moji and Grandmummy, the boss. Lockdown is now over and the four are back together and feeling very happy so to be. In the first story, Tola Finds a Solution, Tola’s friend, Mrs Shaky Shaky, who likes to come down and sit on the outside steps and chat to passers by, is having difficulty with the stairs. Tola too is having some difficulty at school because nobody believes that she knows and worked for the most famous Afrobeat musicians in Nigeria. Tola is great at solving maths problems but loneliness is much more tricky. Can she find a way to help Mrs Shaky-Shaky, and perhaps herself too? Tola certainly isn’t one to give up easily

In Tola Counts the Uncountable Grandmummy announces that they are going to take a holiday, something Tola and her siblings have never done before: they’re off to the beach! In the end only Grandmummy and Tola go. Tola is shocked at the amount of rubbish all over the beach, covering a lot of the sand and she realises that she’s found something impossible to count – the grains of sand. Later on she finds two more uncountable things: one is the waves; what could the other be do you think.

In Too Small Tola is a Rock Star, Tola is looking after baby Jide for Mr and Mrs Abdul. Suddenly she realises that he’s crawled off. Where can he be? Can Tola find him?

Readers and listeners will be charmed by these tales, which as always, celebrate family, community and love, as well as trying to find answers to sometimes tricky concerns. Onyinye Iwu’s illustrations are full of warmth and gentle humour adding to the delights of Atinuke’s text.

Mermaid Academy: Cora and Sparkle
Julie Sykes and Linda Chapman, illustrated by Lucy Truman
Nosy Crow

In this second tale set in and around Mermaid Academy the focus is the under-confident Cora and her dolphin partner, Sparkle. Cora has now been at the academy several weeks and still misses spending most of her time close to her twin, Issy. However, she is excited to hear the news that instead of normal lessons on Fridays, the students would participate in ‘enrichment activities’ or clubs. The club of Cora’s choice is music club, despite what her friends select but then she changes her mind and opts for what her sister has chosen. The day doesn’t go well until much later when she’s back with Sparkle and discovers her magic – it’s whirlwave magic, so Sparkle tells her and reluctantly agrees to Cora keeping this to herself until Issy has found out what her magic is. That means that any practice at creating whirlwaves must be covert.

Meanwhile her friends are excited about the repairs they’d been able to carry out on the damaged Glass Ocean reef but anxious to discover who or what is causing the destructive damage. To this end they all pay a visit to the Sea Sphinx,

the result being the possibility of a clandestine night-time adventure. Soon both Cora and Sparkle are heading towards the diminishing reef to find her friends and hopefully, the coral-crunching culprits. Great danger awaits but can the friends finally solve the mystery? And will Cora eventually decide to be true to herself in choices she makes?

Sparkling fun: younger readers will enjoy diving into the world of Cora and her fellow mermaids made even more magical with Lucy Truman’s drawings.