Read more
Informationen zum Autor Atinuke; Illustrated by Onyinye Iwu Klappentext "In ordinary times, Tola lives in an apartment in Lagos, Nigeria, with her clever sister, Moji; her sporty brother, Dapo; and bossy Grandmommy. Tola is so happy! But news of a new virus--and a lockdown, too--sends Moji away in one direction and Dapo in another. Then, when Grandmommy can no longer go out to work, Tola goes instead. She works for the wealthy Diamond family and makes new friends among the household staff. But even the wealthy have problems--and only Too Small Tola is big enough to rise to solve them."--Provided by publisher. Leseprobe Tola lives in a run-down block of apartments in the megacity of Lagos, in the country of Nigeria. She lives with her grandmother, who is very bossy; her sister, Moji, who is very clever; and her brother, Dapo, who works very, very hard. Some say that more than twenty million people also live in Lagos. There are billionaires with private helicopters to take them to Mecca every Friday. And there are people with no bank accounts. If they miss one day of work, they cannot buy food that day. Tola and her family are lucky. Tola’s brother, Dapo, has a job as a mechanic. And they can buy as much food as they need! Dapo earns so much that Grandmommy does not need to work selling groundnuts by the side of the road like she used to do. Now Grandmommy can stay at home and chat with the neighbors who live in the other rooms in the block of apartments. And now Tola can go to school every day instead of having to help sell groundnuts sometimes. Tola loves school! And when she comes home, there is always food ready. And food is even packed for Mrs. Shaky-Shaky too. Mrs. Shaky-Shaky is a neighbor who is too shaky to cook for herself. So Grandmommy often packs food for her. All the neighbors do. “Come and eat,” Grandmommy says to Tola every day when she gets home. “Eat and then you can concentrate on your schoolwork.” And every day Tola hugs Grandmommy. It is so good to eat. So good to have time for homework. One evening, Tola opens her math notebook. She loves how numbers fit together like a puzzle—a puzzle that you can put together and then take apart again. She stares at the pages where she has written her times tables. And suddenly, Tola sees the answers to division problems! “Moji!” Tola shouts. Tola’s sister, Moji, does not look up from her borrowed school computer. Moji has a scholarship to a fine-fine school. She is determined to become a doctor. Grandmommy says, “Tola, do not bother your sister!” Grandmommy is determined that Moji become a doctor too. Then they will be able to live in a proper house with several rooms and have a cook and a washerwoman. But Tola is too excited to be quiet! Inside the equation 3 x 12 = 36 she can see the answer to the problem 36 ÷ 12! And also the answer to 36 ÷ 3! Tola is sure of it. She shrieks and claps her hands. Moji frowns. “What is it?” she asks at last. “Multiplication and division are the same!” Tola crows. “But backward!” Moji smiles. “Show me!” she says. So Tola writes: 3 x 12 = 36 36 ÷ 12 = 3 36 ÷ 3 = 12 “You are right, little sister!” Moji smiles again. She looks up at Grandmommy and says, “Maybe this one could get a scholarship too!” Tola’s eyes become as wide as the pans Grandmommy used to fry groundnuts. Could this be true? But just then somebody starts shouting in the corridor outside their room, and Grandmommy hurries out. “A scholarship, Moji?” Tola asks with her eyes still wide. Dapo laughs. He is resting on the bed after his long day bent over the open hoods of broken cars. “What is it with you and school?” he asks. “Other girls like to think about fashion and hair and boys and babies—” Moji snorts. “It is you who likes to believe ...
