{"id":212,"date":"2011-11-16T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=212"},"modified":"2011-11-16T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-11-16T15:00:00","slug":"to-timbuktu-by-casey-sciezka-nonfiction-art-teaching-love-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=212","title":{"rendered":"To Timbuktu, by Casey Sciezka (nonfiction) – art, teaching, love, travel"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n

Nine countries,
Two people,
One true story.<\/p>\n

Travel the long route To Timbuktu<\/i> with Casey and Steven on this World Wednesday, sharing their everyday joys, occasional mishaps, and adventures on their two-year journey together.<\/p>\n

Steven’s charcoal sketches perfectly complement Casey’s retelling of their experiences as teachers of English in Beijing<\/a> (becoming residents instead of visitors that cold winter<\/a> ), as travelers in Vietnam and Thailand<\/a> (paradise of warmth and way too many tourists), and as observers in different towns of Mali<\/a>, including the remote and legendary Timbuktu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Returning to the US, they’ve established the Local Language Literacy foundation<\/a> to provide humorous books to African students in their native languages. Casey’s first LLL book was translated into Bamanakan by a teacher they worked with in Mali, and 1300 copies are now in the hands of Malian high school students<\/a>. Currently, she and Steven are working with author Daour Wade to create books in French and Wolof<\/a> for students in Senegal.<\/p>\n

What an adventure Casey and Steven had as they traveled together! You’ll be glad that you came along on their winding journey To Timbuktu<\/i>!
**kmm<\/p>\n

Book info<\/b>: To Timbuktu: Nine Countries, Two People, One True Story \/ Casey Scieszka, illustrated by Steven Weinberg. Roaring Brook, 2011. [author’s website<\/a>] [publisher site<\/a>] [book trailer<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Recommendation<\/b>: World travel \u2013 that\u2019s the plan for Casey and Steven after graduation. Now, actually getting jobs overseas \u2013 that\u2019s another thing…<\/p>\n

When they met in Morocco during junior semester abroad, the pair tried to just live in the moment, as they\u2019d be in college on opposite coasts when they returned to the US. But they couldn\u2019t let each other go and kept up their long-distance romance through that long, difficult year before graduation.<\/p>\n

Casey dreams of living overseas and writing the stories told by Muslims who live in different cultures, examining how Islamic schools differ from others in the same country. Steven\u2019s art is his passion; what career that will lead him to is still uncertain. As Casey writes grant applications for her research, Steven wonders how his future fits into hers\u2026<\/p>\n

When Casey finally gets funding to live and write in Mali \u2013 a year from now \u2013 she and Steven decide to travel and work in other countries along the way. Teaching English in Beijing, touring Southeast Asia, grabbing a quick rendezvous with their families in Paris, a detour through Morocco to see their host families again, then they\u2019re finally in Mali!<\/p>\n

But can the couple stay in love through traveler\u2019s flu, bureaucratic red tape, and erratic train schedules? When Casey is piled-up with research, will Steven have enough to do? And once you\u2019ve gone all the way To Timbuktu, what do you do next??<\/p>\n

This autobiographical travel memoir leaps off the pages, thanks to Casey\u2019s evocative narrative and Steven\u2019s many sketches, taking us from their Beijing neighborhood to the schools of Mali and everywhere in between. And, yes, Casey is the daughter of author Jon Scieskza. (Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nine countries,Two people,One true story. Travel the long route To Timbuktu with Casey and Steven on this World Wednesday, sharing their everyday joys, occasional mishaps, and adventures on their two-year journey together. Steven’s charcoal sketches perfectly complement Casey’s retelling of their experiences as teachers of English in Beijing (becoming residents instead of visitors that cold […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,157,23],"tags":[117,124,4,100,11,46,39,49,15,9,21,35,154,6,53,8,61],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-biography","category-nonfiction","tag-africa","tag-art","tag-belonging","tag-china","tag-communication","tag-funny","tag-love","tag-memories","tag-relationships","tag-school","tag-self-image","tag-surprises","tag-thailand","tag-travel","tag-us-artist","tag-us-author","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}