|summary=When you're a man living with three wives, seven children and a menagerie of animals including five goggle-eyed goats, something's got to give. Old Ali Haji Amadu's wives are fed up with the goats chewing the clothes and munching the radishes. Ali Haji promises to get rid of them but is that what everyone really wants?
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'''Longlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2013'''
Life is pretty chaotic in Timbuktu where Ali Haji Amadu lives with his wives, children and their many animals. They have one dangle-tailed donkey, two snaggle-toothed camels, three curvy-horned cows, four wobble-legged lambs and five goggle-eyed goats. That would probably be enough if the goats were not so troublesome and mischievous, munching and chewing everything in sight. At the insistence of his three wives, Fama, Rama and Sama, Ali Haji sets off to Mopti Market with the intention of selling the goats. It's a long trek but he finally arrives early the following morning and tries to find someone to buy them. It's not as easy as he expects though, especially when certain members of his family, having followed him, decide to intervene. It seems that the goats are wanted after all even though there is always such a hullabaloo when they are around.