Good morning, Africa! Book

This book is part of a series called "Our Amazing Continents". Though dated (copyright 2003; it refers to Democratic Republic of the Congo as "Zaire") it is a terrific introduction to Africa for primary students, providing a nice overview of the geographical features and some information about indigenous cultures. It has beautiful photographs and is not text heavy.

Sayre's writing could occasionally be sharper. One sentence describing animal life on the savanna, for example, is quite misleading: "animals quickly lay their eggs, which might have to wait years until enough rainfall helps them hatch." This makes it sound as though eggs lie there dormant until there is sufficient moisture. Curious about the truth of this statement, I did some of my own research and could only find references to the lengthy 8-9 month incubation of Labard's chameleon during Madagascar's dry season and the 460 day incubation of an African "leopard tortoise". It would have been more accurate for Sayre to say that in very dry years few frog, fish, and insect eggs will actually have sufficient moisture to hatch.

This unpaginated book lacks other nonfiction text features that would be helpful to young children, such as a table of contents and an index. However, it is the absence of a glossary that is most noticeable. Terms such as steppes, mangrove, and soda lake could do with some clarification.