Handa’s Surprise by Eileen Browne

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Handa’s Surprise by Eileen Browne.jpg

This hilarious story is a must-read and the illustrations are charming and inviting. The children will enjoy it and laughing at the end of the story. Read this book aloud to the children and wait for the surprise! [1]   

Summary

Handa’s Surprise.png

This is a fantastic story set in Africa.

Handa belongs to the Luo tribe in south-west Kenya. One day, Handa decides to give some fruits to her friend, Akeyo. Akeyo lives in the neighbouring village. Handa wonders what fruits Akeyo would like. She puts seven different types of delicious fruits in her basket and sets off. On the way, cheeky wild animals lay their hands on some of the fruits.

On her way to Akeyo's house something happened to the basket. Will she has anything to offer her friend? [2]

Pros

The story provides a perfect opportunity for young children to engage in role playing whereby one child could be Handa with a certain amount of fruits (e.g. Unifix cubes or plastic fruit toys) in a basket sitting on their head, and some other children could play the role of the different animals who take the fruits from Handa’s basket in different amounts, and at the end the whole class has to work out how many fruits would be left. ‘Handa's Surprise’ is a recommended book to teach the concept of subtraction to children, aged 4+ years old. [3]

Alice Burns as a verified reader gave her comment about this book, this book is a lovely picture book that can be used in to create cross curricular activities. Study of others cultures, healthy eating, where fruit comes from. It has beautiful illustrations and provides a small outlook on the tribal like in South West Kenya. The animals and fruit within the story may well be new to the children, giving them a chance to explore the culture and differences between us and them. The children absolutly will fall in love with this book. It's easy to understand book and also very entertaining. [4] 

References