His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie begins with Elikem absent on his wedding day, represented instead by his brother Richard. It is a story that peels back the curtain on marriage, family pressure, and the politics of beauty in African society.

This book is utterly charming, laugh‑out‑loud funny, and deeply moving. It portrays resilience — how children raised by grandparents in the countryside, by a nanny in the city and then at boarding school, with little parental presence, can grow up self‑reliant and perceptive. It’s a voice seldom heard in children’s literature and one that heralds a new and powerful wave of African storytelling by Africans, for Africans

Kinyatti, who was himself taken prisoner for six and a half years in 1982 for writing on the Mau Mau movement during Daniel arap Moi’s regime, intimates the hard conditions and torture prisoners faced.

The challenging aspect of children’s books, says Robert Dersley, is timing. One can throw so much love into the illustrations it can never end. 

Flipping through the pages of After 4.30, you’ll find yourself seated beside Emili, Lili, and Beti, women who feel eerily familiar. Women you might recognise. As you read, faces come to mind; some alive, some lost.

Representation in children’s literature is more than just numbers. It is about creating a world where every child can see themselves, in the characters they encounter and the authors who create them.