Beyond the Book: 'Purple Hibiscus', Why Wider Reading is your Secret Weapon at A Level / IB English Lit

Let’s be honest - securing those top grades at A Level or IB English Lit isn’t about your child nodding earnestly at Hamlet and parroting back their teacher’s notes.  It’s about reading between the lines, outside the margins and connecting the dots.  Enter: wider reading.  And trust me, it works, especially when your star pupil is tackling Purple Hibiscus (other heavyweight texts apply).

Nigeria’s 90s: Political Turbulence (and Why You Need Chinua Achebe on Speed Dial)

When your budding literary genius asks, “Why do I need to know about Nigerian politics?  I’m just here for some family drama!” you need to hand them a copy of There Was a Country. Kambili’s oppressive home life, under the suffocating rule of Papa Eugene, is basically a microcosm of Nigeria’s larger authoritarian struggles in the 90s.  Eugene doesn’t just wake up feeling a tad tyrannical - he’s a symbol of political and religious tyranny.

Read: Chinua Achebe’s There Was a Country. This is the crash course your child needs on the Biafran War and why Nigeria remains so fractured.  Eugene’s iron fist will make much more sense when you see him as a product of post-colonial chaos.  Plus, Achebe mentored Adichie, so the dots connect beautifully.

Literary Traditions: The Ones That Came Before (and Why You Should Be Reading Them)

Yes, Purple Hibiscus is a page-turner about a young girl finding her voice, but it’s also steeped in the traditions of postcolonial and feminist literature.  Aunt Ifeoma, the no-nonsense feminist icon we all need, is a direct challenge to the patriarchal, colonial, and religious structures that have stifled voices like hers for centuries. And just as Auntie would, you hand over a copy of Things Fall Apart.

Read: Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.  This is the key to understanding how European colonisation messed things up and why its ripple effects are still shaping characters like Eugene. Bonus: Adichie’s short stories in The Thing Around Your Neck give a more personal, semi-autobiographical spin, revealing her life’s influence on her work.

Feminism: Aunt Ifeoma and Why bell hooks Should Be Your New Best Friend

Aunt Ifeoma doesn’t just stroll into the novel - she storms in, unapologetically feminist and a vital counterbalance to Eugene’s tyranny.  Kambili, who starts off as a literal wallflower, slowly channels her inner Ifeoma (though not without some serious trauma first).

Read: bell hooks’ Ain’t I a Woman. bell hooks will show your child how race, gender, and class intersect in Adichie’s characters.  Kambili’s silence, a key theme in the novel, isn’t just about Papa’s iron fist - it’s the weight of centuries of societal oppression.

The Personal and Political: Adichie’s Life and Her Short Stories

Here’s where wider reading shifts from ‘helpful’ to ‘essential.’  If your child is reading Purple Hibiscus without factoring in Adichie’s life, they’re missing out.  Her short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck is layered with autobiographical threads.  Adichie has this way of weaving the personal into the political, so understanding her background gives new and poignant meaning to Kambili’s journey.

Read: The Thing Around Your Neck.  Adichie’s short stories are like a set of lenses that offer clarity to the themes in Purple Hibiscus.  You’ll emerge from this collection understanding that Kambili’s struggles with religion, power, and freedom are very much tied to Adichie’s own experiences.

Why Wider Reading Is Your Golden Ticket in Exams

Let’s cut to the chase - examiners love wider reading.  It shows depth, nuance, and intellectual ambition.  When your child references Achebe or hooks, they won’t just see a student - they see a scholar in the making.  Wider reading connects the dots between themes and ideas making their essays stand out like diamonds in a sea of semi-precious stones.

Need help getting your child to make these connections?  The LangLit Studio is here for one-on-one or group tuition to supercharge their wider reading game. Get in touch for a free 20-minute consultation to see how we can help.

(P.S. It’ll make dinner table conversations much more interesting, too.)