Podcast #29: The No. 1 Car Spotter and The No. 1 Car Spotter and the Firebird by Antinuke

An Interview with Meera Sriram

For my twenty-ninth Dream Gardens kid lit podcast, I interviewed author Meera Sriram about two of her favorite middle grade novels,  The No. 1 Car Spotter and The No. 1 Car Spotter and the Firebird , written by Antinuke and illustrated by Warwick Johnson Cadwell.

Published in 2010 and 2011 respectively,  The No. 1 Car Spotter and The No. 1 Car Spotter and the Firebird tell a variety of stories about Oluwalase Babatunde Benson, a young boy in a rural African village (based on the author’s own childhood in Nigeria) who has a special talent for spotting cars before anyone else can, so much so that everyone calls him No. 1.  But car spotting isn’t No.1’s only talent. He has a knack for finding just the right solution for whatever problem visits his village. Whether it’s finding a way to get a group of rich tourists across a flooded road so Mama Coca-Cola can feed them her fried akara, or figuring out how to get his family’s goods to the market when their cart breaks down by inventing the Cow-rolla, No. 1 always finds a way to save the day. These two books (and there are four more in the series) are funny and entertaining and shine a small light on a part of the world not often seen in children’s books.

Meera Sriram is co-author of such books as Bijoy and the Big River and Endangered Animals of India. In addition, she blogs about multicultural children’s books  and offers presentations with a focus on Early Literacy. You can find Meera’s website at www.meerasriram.com

All podcasts are available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play. Please link, share, comment, or subscribe. The next podcast will be published on March 1st, 2018.

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