Children’s author Atinuke fell in love with stories long before falling in love with storytelling.
Born in Nigeria, her father was a lecturer and her mother was an editor. She adored Enid Blyton as a kid and knows how important books can be to a child’s development.
She is the author of the bestselling Anna Hibiscus series, which details the fun adventures of an African child living with her family and having lots of fun.
But black authors are still underrepresented in UK publishing. According to October 2020 research from Sheffield Hallam University, 94 per cent of children’s authors are white.
Here, Atinuke shares her top five picture books with black people in them and tells us how were received by her own children.
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