In a big Arabian city, an orphan boy is forced to work as a camel jockey - a dangerous job he doesn't like. But a new friendship and a magical escape into the desert are about to change his life... Camel racing is a popular sport in the Gulf states. Child jockeys are used to ride the camels and come from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sudan, Mauritania and Eritrea. Often poor families are persuaded to sell sons as young as five years old, who are taken away to be trained and often badly treated. Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates have banned the use of child jockeys and are returning the children to their families so that they can live a normal life. Robots are now being used in place of jockeys in the United Arab Emirates, but in some Middle Eastern countries small children are still being forced to race camels. The pictures are beautiful - really evocative. Elizabeth Laird, prize-winning author of Crusade, The Garbage King and Lost Riders (also about a camel jockey)

 

 

This book has been graded for interest at 5-8 years.

There are 40 pages in this book.

This is a picture book. A picture book uses pictures and text to tell the story. The number of words varies from zero ('wordless') to around 1k over 32 pages. Picture books are typically aimed at young readers (age 3-6) but can also be aimed at older children (7+).

This book was published in 2009 by Frances Lincoln Publishers Ltd .

ERIKA PAL was born in Budapest. She worked in an animation film studio, before relocating to the UK with a dream of becoming a freelance illustrator. During her Animation and Illustration degree at London's Kingston University, she was twice highly commended for the Macmillan Prize, and won the national competition for Booktrust's Big Picture logo. After graduation, her first picture book, Azad's Camel was published by Frances Lincoln, followed by I See the Moon and Little Lion. Erika currently lives in London and her other interests are printmaking and experimental animation.