about the book
An illustrated travelogue about the handful of years right after college that Casey and Steven spent working in Asia and West Africa making it—you guessed it—All the way to timbuktu.
Impressively witty, perceptive, and candid… [An] effortless mix of globe-trotting adventure, romance, humor, and expanding self-knowledge. // Publishers Weekly starred review
For teens itching to get out into the world, this is a road map, and Casey and Steven make for eminently pleasant traveling companions. // American Library Association’s Booklist review
Often humorous, and occasionally heartbreaking. // School Library Association
A breath of fresh air from a sometimes contrived, bloated genre… a must-read for any bright-eyed Gen X or Y (especially couples!) thinking of living and working in a non-Western environment. // Lonely Planet
what they're up to now
After their travels, Casey and Steven moved to San Francisco then back to Morocco then over to Brooklyn for a bit until 2014 when they moved up the Catskill Mountains of New York State where they opened The Spruceton Inn: a Catskills Bed and Bar.
Casey is the Head Innkeeper at the Inn. You can see more about what she's up to these days at caseyscieszka.com and @sprucetoninn
Steven is a kids' book writer and illustrator as well as a painter. Check out his current work at stevenweinbergstudio.com and @steven_draws
LOCAL LANGUAGE LITERACY
Upon returning to the States, Casey and Steven founded the 501(c)3 non-profit Local Language Literacy in order to raise funds to create, print, and distribute books in native languages throughout the world.
Local Language Literacy operated from 2009-2019. Their first project was a novel in Bamanankan titled "Sababu Man Dogon" which was distributed to more than three thousand school age kids in Mali. Their second project was a bilingual picture book in Wolof and French titled "Akkako". Their final project was funding the creation, printing, and distribution of additional Bamanankan texts to schools kids and teachers in Mali through the L’Institut Pour L’Education Populaire, the Malian school and teacher training program where Steven and Casey worked back in 2007.
Thank you to everyone who contributed over the years!