All Aboard for the Bobo Road

Fatima and Galo help their father Big Ali load the luggage onto his minibus at the bus station. They are off to Bobo city and are very excited, especially as they have the best seats, on the roof! The bus is busy and the journey interesting, taking them passed a lake full of hippos, waterfalls, rock formations and forests before they finally reach their destination in the city and are rewarded with a pot of their favourite food.

This is a vibrant and richly coloured picturebook evoking the environment and heat of Burkina Faso and the design of African textiles.  There is the opportunity for counting as Fatima and Galo load luggage onto the minibus; starting with two mopeds and three bicycles until the bus is staggering under the weight of nine goats and ten chickens. A beady eye will be needed to spot some of these items in the detailed illustrations and numbers are conveyed through words rather than digits. The endpapers are used brilliantly with a map of the route to Bobo, young readers will enjoy tracing the bus’s journey.