A cheerful picture book following a baby cockatoo as he tries to find his way home, this is fun to share while also enabling young children to discover countries around the world alongside the little bird.

Kian the little cockatoo lives in a zoo and sings about his happy life back home in Timbuktu. He yearns for home and one day when the keeper opens his cage Kian sneaks out and flies off, homeward bound. But how will he find his way home? Which way should he go?

Young children will find Kian appealing and enjoy following him as he makes his way back to Africa and home. Luckily for the reader Kian takes a rather roundabout and scenic route visiting Antarctica, Australia, India, China, England, Egypt and many other countries on his journey. The story told in rhyme with use of repetition describes all the sights that he sees along the way including a variety of animals, famous landmarks and places so children learn as they listen or read along.

The illustrations are bright and cheerful depicting many of the animals and places mentioned on Kian’s journey. Young children will enjoy recognising some of these and it is also a good prompt for discussion and a mini geography lesson as well as being entertaining. There is also a little ladybird to find on every page, a map of the world at the beginning and end of the book showing the route that Kian takes plus a page of fun facts to complete the package.

A lovely picture book for sharing in the home or classroom. I should like to thank the author, William Ford, for my free review copy. The Cockatoo from Timbuktu is out now and available to purchase online

You may also enjoy Here We Are – Notes for Living on Planet Earth by Oliver Jeffers a beautiful guide to our world fir young children.