Naaz Khan created a wonderful, rhyming, funny tale of a brother, Musa, and his sister, Dada, on their trip to the beach in the daladala, a bus, in Zanzibar. This book is a fun counting book as they continue to add 1, 2, 3 and up to 10 things and people to the daladala. Musa doesn’t think any more can fit, at each stop he says there is no more room, but his sister believes they can fit everyone who needs the lift. By the end of the story when they are adding 10 divers to the bus, Musa is laughing along with his sister and ready to welcome anyone aboard. Finally, they make it to the beach and as everyone spills out, you count backwards remembering all the people and animals and things Musa and Dada made room for along the way.

One of the things I enjoyed most about this book is the representation of Africa in the illustrations. The pictures show so much joy and movement and all the reader can do is giggle along with Musa and Dada as they stuff as many things as possible onto the daladala bus. I also enjoyed how the text was represented, also with alot of movement, using large type-face for some words and arranging the phrases in different places across the page.

The book does have a glossary at the back for a few Arabic and Swahili words that show up in the text. Although it does explain the words, it does not help pronounce them.

I think many kids would find this book funny and it will spark great conversations about different cultures, countries, and language.