Summer travel guide: Africa and Australia

Where will reading take you this summer?


Here're a few chapter books that take place oceans away... 

Akimbo stories by Alexander McCall-Smith.  Akimbo lives on the game preserve where his father works and has adventures such as capturing poachers, studying baboons, and rescuing zoologists.

A Hare in the Elephant's Trunk by Jan Coates   Inspired by the real life experiences of a Sudanese boy, this is the story of Jacob Akech Deng's journey as he flees his home under the threat of war, and, guided by the memory of his mother, tries to survive in a refugee camp.

Toad rage books by Morris Gleitzman  Limpy the toad goes on quests to find a place where cane toads can be safe from humans and live in harmony.

Don't Pat the Wombat by Elizabeth Honey  Mark Ryder and his middle-school classmates are off to "school camp," where they are to try on the lifestyle of pioneers. Mary, the resident head of the camp, teaches the students basic survival skills while maintaining the facility as an animal refuge. She advises them not to touch the wombats, so that they will return to the bush when they mature. The students and teachers have experiences ranging from funny to near tragic.

No.1 Car spotter by Atinuke. Oluwalase Babatunde Benson, otherwise known as No. 1, lives in a tiny village with "few compounds and many goats and several cows," and is not only the best car-spotter in his African village, his electric ideas improve village life.