Welcome to Our Bay

Your child has a shelf full of snow and castles. Here is one about home.

Spend one sunny day in a small Fijian village with Samy, who leads, Bela, who writes everything down, their grandma Bubu, who knows every shell and every story, and Chicky, the cheekiest hen in the bay.

The day runs from the first pot on the fire to the last star. Corn for the chickens, dalo in the garden, a mango just out of reach. Bula to every face on the path to the market. School, football on the green, then a whole village sweeping and cooking and dancing for a festival. A feast on green leaves by the sea. A canoe, a downpour, a rainbow. Church bells and temple flowers, two ways of saying thank you. Lanterns, diyas, a sparkler. And Bubu at the end, telling the story of the turtle in the stars.

They call it paradise. We just call it home. Goodnight.

For a Pacific child, this is the page they have been waiting for: pointing at it and saying that's me, that's my home. For every other child, it is an open door.

Can you find Chicky hiding?

•  Rhyming read-aloud for ages 2 to 7

•  Everyday Fijian woven through: bula, yadra, dalo, bele

•  Book 1 in the Samy & Bela series