52 Days by Camel, My Sahara Adventure  •  Debora Pearson  •  Lawrie Raskin TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 88 PAGES • MIDDLE READERS (Age 9-12) A travelogue for middle readers, much in the spirit of an adult travelogue but with full-color pictures and a child-friendly emphasis on camels, unusual people, outsize weather and benign adventure. Raskin's journey was inspired by a signpost in Morocco which read "Timbuktu 52 Days". He sets out from Fez and ends up (52 days later?) in Timbuktu, whence he continues on to the salt mines of Taoudenni, Mali. (NAF11, $14.95)
Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay  •  David C. Conrad HISTORY •  2005 •  HARD COVER  • 128 PAGES An authoritative survey of the history, traditions and cultures of the Mali, Songhay, and Ghana empires and the western horn of Africa. A volume in the eight-volume series on Great Empires of the Past, geared for middle schoolers, the book is a good overview for anyone with an interest in the history of the region. (WAF82, $35.00)
Eyewitness Africa  •  Yvonne Ayo CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1995 •  HARD COVER • MIDDLE READERS (Age 9-12) A thoroughly illustrated overview of traditional ways of life throughout Africa in the highly visual Eyewitness series. Each two-page spread is devoted to a specific aspect of African life, such as home-building, medicine and religion. Geared for children ages 9-12. (AFR59, $15.99)
Kings and Queens of West Africa  •  Sylvianne Anna Diouf HISTORY •  2000 •  PAPER  • 64 PAGES • MIDDLE READERS (Age 9-12) An appealing souce of information about West African history for readers ages 9 to 12. This slim, fully illustrated volume is a sequence of brief biographies of notable rulers of Senegal, Mali and Ghana. (AFR119, $8.95)
Mansa Musa  •  Khephra Burns  •  Leo Dillon  •  Diane Dillon BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2001 •  HARD COVER  • 56 PAGES • MIDDLE READERS (Age 9-12) This fascinating biography follows Mansa Musa from his lowly boyhood in 14th-century West Africa to his adolescence as a slave in a foreign desert to his ultimate ascendance as king of Mali. Khephra Burns writes marvelously, and the Dillons' illustrations are out-and-out transcendant. It's a treasure for readers ages 8-12. (WAF60, $18.00)
Traveling Man, The Journey of Ibn Battuta, 1325-1354  •  James Rumford TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2001 •  HARD COVER  • 40 PAGES • MIDDLE READERS (Age 9-12) It's high time someone turned Ibn Battuta's travels into the stuff of a children's book, for if ever a journey could captivate young readers, Ibn Battuta's is it. James Rumford's full-color paintings beautifully illustrate this impressionistic chronicle of a trip throughout the medieval Muslim world (including much of Africa, the Middle East, India, China and Malaysia), and Rumford also thoughtfully includes a map. Geared for ages 9-12. (MDE65, $16.00)