Baby Iris Goes to Africa: Five Little Adventures Across a Big, Beautiful Continent

FIVE COUNTRIES. TEN STOPS. ONE ENORMOUS CONTINENT - AND TWO LITTLE EXPLORERS. Baby Iris is going to Africa. At the airport gate she meets Zuri, who is four, keeps a map and one very smooth pebble in her satchel, and is travelling the whole continent too. Together they wave at the Great Sphinx and hug a warm temple column in Luxor. They watch a giraffe stretch for acacia leaves, then find wooden dhows sailing off Mombasa. They sniff spices in a Marrakech souk and sit on a blue-painted step in Chefchaouen. They dance to drums in Accra and watch a weaver in Kumasi turn thread into gold and green kente. They meet penguins below Table Mountain - and then walk down a street of glass towers in Johannesburg. "Africa has cities like this?" asked Iris. >NOT ONE COUNTRY. NOT ONE STORY. Most books about Africa for small children show the same handful of animals and stop there. This one begins by saying plainly that Africa is a continent of fifty-four countries, and then proves it: ancient history in Egypt, wildlife and conservation in Kenya, craft and pattern in Morocco, music and heritage in Ghana, and many languages living side by side in South Africa. Every country gets two very different places, so no child closes this book thinking Africa looks like one thing. FIVE STORIES, THEN SIXTEEN PAGES TO EXPLORE - Egypt - the pyramids of Giza, ancient picture writing, and the temple columns of Luxor - Kenya - safari, elephants and conservation, and the dhows of Mombasa - Morocco - spice markets and tilework, and the blue town of Chefchaouen - Ghana - drums, jollof rice and kente cloth, and a weaver's loom in Kumasi >WHAT'S INSIDE - 80 full-colour pages with 17 large illustrations and 5 activity plates - An illustrated map with all five countries pinned and Iris's route drawn between them - Hello and goodbye in five languages - Arabic, Swahili, Moroccan Arabic, Twi and isiXhosa - Food to name and point at: koshari, ugali, tagine, jollof rice, bobotie, baladi bread - Clothing to name and point at: a galabeya, a Maasai shuka, a djellaba, kente cloth - Animal and matching pages that work before a child can read a single word - A Little Explorer question at the end of every story - Drawing prompts and a write-in travel journal at the back >PERFECT FOR Children ages 3 to 7. Preschool and kindergarten read-alouds. Families with roots anywhere in Africa, and families with none at all. Grandparents sharing where they came from. Long journeys, rainy afternoons, and the week before a trip. Part of the Learn with Baby Iris family of books for young children. Scroll up and start the journey.