Oh dear, this one deals with grief at the loss of grandfather -- tear jerker, guys, tear-jerker. Still, lots of funny stories about life in a big big family in amazing Africa. ( )

Anna Hibiscus returns in this eighth and final chapter-book devoted to her adventures, this time confronting personal tragedy and the grief and anger thereafter. The volume opens with Double Trouble, in which Anna's younger twin brothers constantly get her into scrapes with their antics, before making it up to her when the entire family is locked out of their big white house. In Good-bye Grandfather, Anna avoids saying goodbye to her fading grandfather, because the hurt is simply too big for her to handle. After his death, she must be reassured that he would pleased to think of her carrying on, and helped to see that he is still with her. In What's Wrong, Sunny?, Anna's grief at her grandfather's death lead her to briefly join a group of bullies at school, only to realize too late that the target is her best friend and adopted family member, Sunny. When Sunny runs away, Anna must find a way to make things right. The story concludes with the twins again, in No More Trouble, as they worry everyone around them with their quiet withdrawal. It falls to Anna to figure out what is wrong, and by telling stories of Grandfather, set matters to rights...

I finished You're Amazing, Anna Hibiscus with a lump in my throat. As always, Nigerian expatriate author Atinuke's story is both heartwarming and poignant. Here she deals with darker themes than in some of her earlier books in the series, addressing not just death and grief, but also the destructive potential of anger, and how we can get carried away with it, causing harm to ourselves and others. In previous books, when Anna did something she shouldn't, it was Grandfather (together with Grandmother) who helped her to see how she had gone wrong, and what she should do to set things right. Now, some of that support network is gone, and although she still has Grandmother and the rest of her family, the challenge she faces is greater. I really appreciated the author's sensitivity, in depicting these themes, and I also liked the way that the book both opened and closed with the twins, Double Trouble. Although young, they too feel the loss of Grandfather, and fear that he has been forgotten, because no one is speaking of him. The conclusion here, in which the whole family tells stories and remembers Grandfather, felt just right!

I am sad that this is the end of the Anna Hibiscus series, which I have greatly enjoyed. Perhaps I will seek out some of Atinuke's picture-books, or the first of her other chapter-book series, The No 1 Car Spotter. ( )