Say hola to Lobster Bob

He guessed about twenty. Somebody else had the real number.

It is Sunday, the one day Lobster Bob is not flying, sailing or driving anywhere. He is sitting in Hernán's shop in La Candelaria, Caracas, where the air smells of glue, old paper and the coffee on the hot plate at the back. Hernán is the man who binds Lobster Bob's logbooks: he stitches the pages together by hand and puts them inside a cover of real leather. Today's is dark red, because red leather lasts and green fades. The radio is off. The radio is never on while he sews.

While Hernán works, Lobster Bob tries to add up how many books have been made for him over the years, and says his guess out loud. Hernán puts down the needle, walks to the shelf, and comes back with a small notebook of his own. Sixty-eight. Every one written down: the day it came in, the day it left, the colour of the leather. Lobster Bob has carried those books across six continents. Hernán has carried the number.

Nothing happens in this story, and that is the point. Your child will learn what a bookbinder does, hear how a whole shop can go quiet for counting, and take away one question to think about at bedtime: what did you notice this week that you did not expect to notice? Then their own logbook starts, one line or one drawing at a time.

Follow free wherever you listen, and grab your free Explorer Pack at lobsterbobspodcast.com - the Paper Passport and My Logbook page, ready to print.

Lobster Bob has been everywhere. Now he is taking you.