Tunde's Morning: A Story from Lagos

TUNDE'S MORNING: A STORY FROM LAGOS.Every morning begins the same way. The alarm clock rattles on the floor. Cold water splashes in a blue bucket. A school uniform, pressed stiff and perfect, waits on its nail. And a mother — the most important person in the whole world — presses something small and folded into a small hand.Just like that. A new day begins.TUNDE'S MORNING is the story of one boy, one family, and one extraordinary ordinary day in the city of Lagos, Nigeria.From the moment Tunde's alarm clock rattles him out of sleep, to the cold bucket bath that wakes him up properly, to the danfo bus that never — not once, not ever — waits for anyone... this is a story that celebrates the beautiful, busy, warm, and wonderful world of growing up in a Lagos compound in the 1990s.It is a story about cold water and hot food. About school uniforms and muddy sandals. About best friends who share the last piece of suya without being asked. About grandmothers who sit at the gate and know everything. About mothers who press ten naira into your palm and hold your fingers closed around it, just for a moment, just long enough.For the children reading this book, Tunde's world will feel like an adventure. The yellow danfo bus hanging off its door. The puff-puff woman with her perfectly balanced head tray. The mango tree in the school yard where everyone sat with their shoes off at lunchtime. The ceiling fan that told you, without a single word, whether NEPA had given light. Every page is a discovery. Every picture tells a story. Every morning in Lagos is something to celebrate.For the parents reading this book aloud, something different will happen. You will turn the first page and something in your chest will move. You will see the kerosene stove and remember the smell of it. You will see the cold bucket and feel it on your skin. You will see the compound gate and hear the sound it made , that specific scrape across the red earth, and you will be seven years old again, or ten, or sixteen, standing at the threshold of your own morning. You will remember that the best part of the day was always the part that seemed the smallest, the ten naira in the palm, the stew that waited on the stove, the fan that turned when the light came back, the table with everyone around it. You will remember. And you will want your child — right there beside you, listening to every word — to know.We didn't know those were the good days. We were too busy living inside them to see them clearly. But they were. They really, truly wereTUNDE'S MORNING is painted in the warm, hand-crafted style of the world's most beloved animated films — rich with colour, alive with detail, and full of the specific, real, and beautiful textures of Lagos compound life. Every illustration is a world to get lost in. Every page spread is a memory waiting to be made. This is Book One of the LAGOS DAYS series — a collection of stories from the same compound, the same family, and the same extraordinary ordinary life.Perfect for:Children aged 4 to 8 who are ready to discover the worldNigerian and West African families who want their children to know where they come fromParents who grew up in Lagos and want to share it with the next generationFamilies everywhere who understand that the best stories happen at homeTeachers and librarians building diverse, beautiful, and meaningful classroom librariesAnyone who ever woke up to an alarm clock on the floor and made something wonderful out of the dayIncludes a special Author's Note for parents at the back of the book, because this story belongs to them too.A gate.A compound.A mother's hand.A city called Lagos.This is where it all begins.EDITION INFORMATION:First Edition2025 Lagos Days Series,Book One 40 Pages Full Colour Throughout Hardcover and Paperback Available Read more