Lawrie Raskin’s dream of visiting the Sahara began in childhood with a comic of Donald Duck riding a camel, and was nurtured by teenage infatuation with the film Lawrence of Arabia. He eventually made it to North Africa, worked as an expedition guide, and co-authored Lawrence of Arabia: The 30th Anniversary Pictorial History, published by Doubleday in 1992. This photo essay of his travels through Algeria, Morocco, Mali, and Mauritania records the realization of his childhood dream and conveys his undimmed enthusiasm for the romance of desert life.

The book is presented as a narrative of his journey from the coastal town of Tangier to legendary Timbuktu, and then along the last great camel caravan route to the salt mines of Taoudenni, Mali: “except for the Antarctica the most uninhabited place on the planet.” Although the 52 days of the title refers to a road sign in the town of Zagora advertising the time required to reach the mid-Sahara by camel, Raskin’s transportation included jeep, bus, mining train, and an ancient French taxi that finally drove him to the gates of Timbuktu.

Camels are not forgotten. By the time he reaches Timbuktu he has learned Arabic, had tea with desert nomads, and – sensibly turbaned and burnoosed – ridden Fred the camel. Although the book somewhat ingenuously describes Raskin as a “desert explorer” (not a mere tourist), he ironically finds Timbuktu so quiet the local inhabitants declare it is he who is exotic, not they. The book ends after a jeep ride to Taoudenni, where Raskin conveys his awe of salt miners living in houses built of salt slabs.

The trip was shaped into a continuous narrative by writer and editor Debora Pearson from the author’s tapes and notes. Obviously designed as a travel adventure and not a geography text, the book has no index or table of contents (which would have been useful to locate the various sidebars on topics such as “What does it mean to be a Moslem”and “How to climb onto a camel”). Artist Farida Zama provided colourful maps of Raskin’s journey, which, though charming, offer no political divisions. An atlas or the online Atlapedia at www.atlapedia.com may be necessary to put the author’s experiences into perspective for the seven- to nine-year-olds likely to use this work.

Annick plans more books in this series, including a visit to the tropical jungles of the South Pacific and the ice highways of the High Arctic. If the guides are as enthusiastic as Raskin, the series may inspire other young readers to seek adventure.