Too Small Tola Makes It CountReview posted August 21, 2025.
Candlewick Press, 2024. First published in the United Kingdom in 2023. 90 pages.
Review written March 17, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
I love Too Small Tola! Here are more adventures for children ready to read chapter books. You don't have to have read the earlier ones to enjoy this one, but I do recommend them, and characters return.
I like the way these books give younger children a window into other people's lives without any need to feel sorry for them and showing lots of love.
Too Small Tola lives in Lagos, unbelievable Lagos.
In Lagos there are children who live in mansions. Mansions so big, their parents have to call their children's cell phones to find which room they are in!
And in Lagos there are children who sleep on cardboard boxes under bridges where people step over them both day and night.
Tola's family is lucky. They do not own a mansion or even an apartment. But they do not sleep under bridges either. They are lucky enough to have the roof of one room over their heads.
Tola lives with her Grandmommy and an older brother and older sister. We're getting to know some of the other people in their building.
In past books, Tola was able to solve some problems using Math. In this book, there are some life problems to solve, which can be trickier. Tola is able to solve problems for her neighbors, but she can't get her school classmates to believe that she worked for a famous rock star's family during the lockdown - until they get a nice comeuppance in the last chapter.
Other problems involve helping Mrs. Shaky-Shaky, who can no longer go up the stairs, and traveling to the beach to escape the heat, and watching her neighbor's baby, who makes an escape.
It all involves everyday life for Tola, and we get to enjoy the kind and wonderful people she interacts with every day, as well as appreciate Tola's ingenuity.
These books always make me smile.