Too Small Tola and the Three Fine Girls

Like Atinuke's Anna Hibiscus, Tola lives in Nigeria. Unlike Anna, Tola lives in an apartment in Lagos with her Grandmommy and two older siblings, Moji and Dapo. While her grandmother sells roasted groundnuts on the street, the family has enough money to send the children to school. Moji studies hard and hopes to be a doctor, while Dapo is not fond of school and Tola is still very young. When they are home from school one day when their grandmother is working, they are tasked with cleaning the stones out of the rice for their meals. Moji wants to study, Dapo wants to goof off with a soccer ball inside, and only Tola works on the rice. When Dapo's ball hits a shelf with the grandmother's treasured gold earrings, Tola works to find them and leaves her siblings to clean the rice. Luckily, the story ends happily with the earrings being found. Sadly, Grandmommy becomes ill with a fever that a neighbor thinks is malaria. The family is fortunate because they have a hidden store of money, but when it is all spend on medication from a pharmacy, the children are soon hungry. They take their grandmother's place selling groundnuts, but despite their best efforts, they don't sell as much. Dapo isn't helpful, and instead hangs out with men repairing vehicles. When he shows a flair for that, he decides to pursue it full time rather than school because they money is good. Tola is thankful that her family is able to survive, but has moments when she envies the more well to do girls she sees in the city. When her grandmother, whose hands pain her because of arthritis, does her hair in intricate braids with beads, and Tola is allowed to go to a local festival with a neighbor, she realizes that there are some things for which the "fine girls" can envy HER.