Little Manyoni wakes up early, gets dressed, eats breakfast with her parents and then she sets off alone across the wilds of Zimbabwe to reach a very special place (spoiler alert) her school.
"This story is set on the Limpopo River in Zimbabwe. Children who live in this dry, sparsely settled area, as in many other parts of rural Africa, often walk as many as two hours to school every day."
The animals Manyoni sees are listed in the back of the book - a civet cat; babons; an African spookbill; elephants; a jackal; and zebras. There are also animals you may not know such as kudus; elands; a gemsbok, an eland; and a dassie. This book would have been perfect to use with the 2020 CBCA Book Week slogan Curious Creatures, Wild Minds.
This book also contains delicious words which are explained in the glossary:
Manyoni crosses the fever tree pan (a temporary shallow lake)
(She) enters the shady kloof (a ravine) where the shy impala feed
Manyoni skips past the red sandstone koppies (small hills)
(She) scrambles over the krantz (a rocky cliff) above the Tobwani Dam.
This book was first published in 1993 but I am happy to report it is still available. The copy I read was purchased by the school library in 2017.
Catherine Stock is the illustrator of other books set in Africa which I highly recommend as worth considering for your school library:
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