Kakum National Park sits in Ghana's Central Region, an easy drive inland from Cape Coast, and the thing almost everybody goes for is the canopy walkway: a run of narrow suspended bridges strung between the tallest trees, well above the forest floor. You walk it in single file. It moves when you move. And at some point near the start, a lot of children stop. What it is actually like The walk up to the entrance is longer and steeper than most people expect, through proper rainforest, and it is warm. By the time you reach the first bridge a small child may already be tired, which matters more than anything else for how the next part goes. Then the forest opens out beneath you. The sides are netted and the base is a single line of planks. It is narrow, it moves as you move, and you cannot see the ground through the leaves — only green, a long way down. Adults who consider themselves fine with heights are sometimes surprised at themselves. Nobody crosses it because it stopped being frightening. They cross it while it is still frightening. Preparing a child Tell them it will wobble. A child who was promised it would not is a child who now doubts everything else you said. Go early. It is cooler, quieter, and there is less pressure from people queueing behind you. Agree in advance that stopping is allowed. The fear usually comes from feeling trapped, not from the height. Let them set the pace and hold the rail themselves rather than being carried or pulled. Being the one doing it is the entire point. Check the park's own current opening times and fees before you travel — these change, and a guide is usually part of the visit. The bit worth staying for The view is not usually the part that stays with a child. What changes is on the way back down: the particular walk of a five-year-old who has done something they did not think they could do, and who will tell you about it for weeks. That is a fairly rare thing to be able to hand a child on a family holiday: not a treat, but evidence about themselves. Why we set a book here Our first title, The Bridge in the Sky, is set on that walkway. The hero is frightened of it and crosses anyway, and the hero is illustrated as the child holding the book. We chose Kakum over somewhere more famous because the story was already there and did not need inventing. A real place, a real fear, and a crossing that a child can be proud of — whether they have stood on those bridges, have family who have, or have only ever seen them on a page.