Halima Superhero Princess

 

Emily Joof, illus. Asa Gilland
Floris Books
Age 5-7 years

Halima and her friends have been invited to a superhero and princess party. What will Halima go as? When her friends tell her she can’t dress up as Elsa from Frozen because she doesn’t look like her or have the right hair, she feels very despondent. Fortunately, her mum reassures her on all counts – her hair is amazing, she can be whoever she wants to be, and there are lots of brave and cool women of colour to choose from. Really excited, Halima spends the week dressing up as several inspiring role models, including Mae Jamieson space explorer and Misty Copeland ballerina. In the end, Halima creates her own outfit, and she becomes a unique superhero princess ready to amaze the guests at her friend’s party.

A reassuring, affirming story with a delightful heroine and similarities to Mary Hoffman’s Amazing Grace.

The back of the book includes an alphabetic gallery of the women Halima’s mum mentions.

Listen to author Emily Joof speak about the book here:

Share the story

Read aloud
Read the story aloud to your child allowing time to look at the detailed illustrations.

Join in
Once your child becomes familiar with the story they might enjoy joining in for example with the conversations between Halima and her friends or with her mum. It doesn’t matter if they change the words slightly for this – they will be deepening their understanding of the meaning of the story.

Talk about the story
◼︎Things you and your child might talk about include:
◼︎Is there anything that puzzles you about the story?
◼︎How Halima feels at different points in the story.
◼︎What you would tell her if you met her?
◼︎What would you tell her friends?
◼︎Talk about what you like to do with your own friends, what do you like doing together.
◼︎Talk about the famous women mentioned in the story and choose some to find more about.

Things to make and do

Design a hairstyle for Halima
Your child might like to design different hair styles for Halima perhaps some for themselves too.

Create a superhero princess party outfit
Give your child paper and pens to draw a design for a new party outfit. Then make a list of everything needed, collect clothes and accessories together, and your child will be ready to try out their new outfit. Don’t forget to take aphoto!

Make a party invitation
Give your child a postcard size piece of card or paper. Suggest they write an invitation for an imaginary party – this could be to a friend, family member or a character from the story. Remind them to include date, time, place and whether the party has a theme – perhaps a superhero theme or something else?

Make a mini book
Find out about some of the famous role models at the back of the book. Make a mini book about one of them.

Find out more

Read another book by Emily Joof ‘I will swim next time’

Find out more about illustrator Asa Gilland

Read another story with a similar theme Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman and Caroline Binch.

Explore more books in our heroes and villains section