Book Summary and Reviews of To Timbuktu by Casey Scieszka

To Timbuktu by Casey Scieszka

To Timbuktu

Nine Countries, Two People, One True Story

by Casey Scieszka

  • Critics' Consensus (0):
  • Published:
  • Mar 2011, 496 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

Casey and Steven met in Morocco, moved to China then went all the way to Timbuktu. This illustrated travel memoir tells the story of their first two years out of college spent teaching English, making friends across language barriers, researching, painting, and learning to be themselves wherever they are.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Come grad season skip Oh, the Places You'll Go! - this will be far better appreciated, with its effortless mix of globe-trotting adventure, romance, humor, and expanding self-knowledge." - Publishers Weekly

"For teens itching to get out into the world, though, this is a great road map, and Casey and Steven make for eminently pleasant traveling companions." - Booklist

"Newly fledged adults (and even those with plenty of mileage under their wings) will find both entertainment and perhaps a dollop of inspiration." - Kirkus

This information about To Timbuktu was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Click here and be the first to review this book!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Information

Casey and Steven are from Brooklyn and D.C. respectively. They’ve set up camp all over the world– from China to Mali to Morocco – but are currently Brooklynites. Casey and Steven are also the co-founders of American Friends of IEP, a nonprofit which helps raise money for local language programs and book printing in Mali, West Africa. Learn more by visiting them at allthewaytotimbuktu.com.  

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked To Timbuktu, try these:

  • The House on Buzzards Bay jacket

    The House on Buzzards Bay

    by Dwyer Murphy

    Published 2026

    About this book

    When a group of old college friends reunites for a summer vacation at a beach house in coastal Massachusetts, a sudden disappearance and the arrival of a seductive stranger threaten to unearth the darkest secrets of their relationships.

  • No Presents Please jacket

    No Presents Please

    by Jayant Kaikini

    Published 2020

    About this book

    For readers of Jhumpa Lahiri and Rohinton Mistry, as well as Lorrie Moore and George Saunders, here are stories on the pathos and comedy of small-town migrants struggling to build a life in the big city, with the dream world of Bollywood never far away.

  • Meet Me at the Museum jacket

    Meet Me at the Museum

    by Anne Youngson

    Published 2019

    About this book

    Anne Youngson's Meet Me at the Museum is a celebration of long letters, kindred spirits, and the possibility of writing a new story for yourself, at any stage of life.

We have 10 read-alikes for To Timbuktu, but non-members are limited to three results. Join free to see the complete list of recommendations.
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes

More Travel & Adventure

Browse all Travel & Adventure books

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    How to Kill a Crime Writer
    by Sarah Lotz
    A young woman joins forces with her late mother's fictional heroine to solve her murder.
  • Book Jacket
    Merry-Go-Round Broke Down
    by David Woo, Margalit Shinar
    Nine linked stories reveal how globalization sparks life-changing consequences across continents.
  • Book Jacket
    The Cloak and Dagger Club
    by Jackie McMahon
    Inspired by Agatha Christie's Detection Club, a murder mystery and second-chance romance collide.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket
    Summer of Love
    by Kerri Maher
    Three women reshape their family's Napa Valley winery after the 1967 Summer of Love.
  • Book Jacket
    Henry Tudor Must Die
    by Jillian Laine
    One exiled. One condemned. Two queens unite for revenge against Henry VIII.
  • Book Jacket
    Tenderness
    by Rowan Beaird
    A 1970s island wedding is threatened when a bride's sinister former cult resurfaces.
  • Book Jacket
    An Infinite Love Story
    by Chanel Cleeton
    “A tender, romantic drama that soars as high as it’s astronauts.” —Kate Quinn
Who Said...

If every country had to write a book about elephants...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Book
Trivia
  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

Y C T an O D N T

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.