Sunshine Baby, Bofrot Cheeks
Sunshine Baby, Bofrot Cheeks
Picture Book / Ghana / Ages 4-8 / Twi
Simon and Schuster
July 22, 2025
A baby and his dad spend a joyful day together. Includes information on Ghanaian culture and Twi vocabulary.
For the past week, I’ve been walking around my apartment stimming the words: “Sunshine baby, bofrot cheeks”, “daddy tickles, baby shrieks”, “daddy’s making kubecake!” I catch myself repeating it while doing my daily chores, eating, and even on the treadmill at the gym. And it’s all because of Bernard Mensah’s catchy Sunshine Baby, Bofrot Cheeks picture book. The story follows a chubby “sunshine baby” with cheeks like bofrot (a Ghanaian puffy doughnut) as he moves through his daily routine—eating, snacking, playtime, showering, reading, and finally drifting off to bed. Mensah expertly weaves these moments into rhyming couplets that linger in your mind and keep you eagerly turning the pages.
What makes the rhythm especially delightful is the seamless blending of English and Twi (a Ghanaian language spoken by the Akan people). The transitions are so fluid you barely notice the switch, yet they create a musicality that gently introduces pronunciation and meaning. One minor quibble is that some of the Twi transcriptions aren’t entirely accurate. For example, the word “bofrot,” is transcribed as “/boa/frot/.” The “a” is unnecessary and changes the pronunciation entirely. It’s important that no one ever says “boafrot.” I trust that parents will naturally correct the errors when reading aloud. And once you fall into the rhythm, you begin to intuit the words anyway.
The illustrations by Islenia Mil are bold, colorful, and full of warmth, perfectly capturing the joy of a child having the absolute best day.
I loved this book so much that I had to read it to my baby nephews, and, needless to say, they were completely captivated. They watched wide-eyed, soaking in every page. It certainly helped that one of them looks just like the sunshine baby with bofrot cheeks! Both now have it as their moniker because Bernard wrote an irresistibly catchy hook, and I do not make the rules.
I rate it five big bo.
Elizabeth Abena Osei, MA
University of Maryland, College Park
Published in Africa Access Review (March 31, 2026 )
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