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Handa's Surprise

by Eileen Browne

Interest age: 3+
Reading age: 5+

Published by Walker Books, 1995

  • Around the world
  • Classics
  • Picture books

About this book

Handa fills her basket with seven delicious fruits - one for each of her friends. But as she walks, the basket balanced on her head, she is unaware of the crafty animals intent on stealing her fruits: a monkey grabs the banana, an ostrich the guava, a zebra the orange, an elephant the mango, a giraffe the pineapple, an antelope the avocado and a parrot the passionfruit.

Finally, a goat charges into a tangerine tree, filling Handa's basket with its fruit. When she reaches her friend Akeyo, Handa is astonished to find her basket full of tangerines, but Akeyo is delighted as tangerines are her favourite fruit!

Glorious images of an African village convey the sights, smells and colours of the landscape, its animals and its food in a story told as much through pictures as through words.

About the author

Eileen was born and brought up in Birmingham. She lived in London for over twenty years before moving to Wiltshire where she now lives. She worked as a school teacher and a youth worker before becoming an author and illustrator. Her first book was published in 1977.

Eileen believes "Certain groups of people are not well represented in books. For example, females only feature as main characters in around 30% of children's books. Because of this, I give them priority. Where's That Bus? was one of the first animal picture books with all female characters." Eileen has written books with Kit Wright and Floella Benjamin. In 2004, Handa's Surprise was made into a theatre production by the Little Angel Theatre, London. Since then it has played in many London theatres, schools, Holloway Prison and at the Guardian Hay Festival.

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