The animals don’t understand why they never see Bushbaby, so they assume he is shy. One by one, they try to coax him out of his hole in the tree, but Bushbaby never appears. As night falls, the animals head off to sleep. All, that is, except Owl, who has been silently observing the day’s events. As Owl prepares for the night, he calls to Bushbaby, who bounds out of his hole, awake and alert. Throughout the hours of darkness, Owl, Bushbaby and the other nocturnal animals go about their everyday activities before returning to their beds as daybreak dawns.
The Wildest Dog and Other African Tales introduces a new story to this popular series. All the animals, including his own pack, think Wild Dog is too wild. In fact, he’s the wildest dog they’ve ever met. His constant activity leads him into a variety of adventures and, ultimately, into danger. But the wild dog pack saves the day and his own mother defends his wild ways, pointing out that curiosity and boldness are essential traits for an alpha dog, such as his father and herself. Rather than squelching Wild Dog’s high spirits, she affi rms them. In six heartwarming tales, Avril van der Merwe highlights character traits or habits that may trouble young children. Wild Dog’s hyperactive nature gets him into trouble, Pangolin uses her intelligence to outsmart Lion and discovers new friends in the process, Bushbaby’s nocturnal habits lead the animals to assume he is shy, Hyena mistakenly thinks that if she changes her identity she’ll be accepted, Hippo’s envy of Rhinoceros’ horn ends up creating more trouble than she anticipated, while Cheetah learns that his bragging doesn’t impress his friends. Each animal character faces a challenge, but with plenty of encouragement and support from their friends, a lesson is learned and the outcome is always positive.
After a night of feasting on termites and ants, Pangolin bumps into Lion as she is returning to her burrow to sleep. Since she is not a fast runner, she has to think quickly to avoid being eaten. Being polite and gentle, she doesn’t want to harm Lion, so she decides to trick him instead. Aided unexpectedly by Dung Beetle, her deception proves successful and Lion soon rushes off to find Pangolin, who has been right under his nose all along. Once he is gone, the other animals come out of hiding and Pangolin learns that, despite being shy and solitary, she has more friends than she ever realised.
Rhinoceros has a magnificent horn, which all the animals admire. All, that is, except Hippo, who is jealous of Rhino's horn, and wants one of her own. While Rhino is asleep, Hippo steals her horn and, after some mishaps, sets it on her snout. But Hippo quickly discovers that wearing a large and heavy horn brings more problems than rewards. Soon all the animals are telling her that a rhino horn belongs on a rhinoceros. Hippo starts to doubt her decision, and when she comes face to face with the compassionate Rhino, Hippo understands that there is no room in the world for jealousy. Hippo returns the horn to its rightful owner and slips quietly into the deep water as Rhino and the rest of the animals gather at the river's edge for their evening drink.
When the threads that hold human society together unravel, the animal kingdom suffers. Karen Paolillo discovered this first-hand in Zimbabwe when she developed a close connection with thirteen hippos in their natural habitat, the Turgwe River. Her mission to save these exceptional animals after they came under threat of drought, land invasions and poachers developed into a beautiful African love story. It is also the stirring tale of how one woman faced personal and financial adversities while ensuring the survival of a family of hippos, with Bob, a three-ton bull, as their leader. With the establishment of the Turgwe Hippo Trust, Karen has triumphed as guardian of the hippos, and the animals have prospered ever since. A Hippo Love Story shares this heroic journey of a nature lover who became an ally of one of Africa's most fearsome animal species.
“Magisterial and uplifting . . . A brilliant, grandscale sampling of sixty-five million years of human evolution . . . It shows the sweep and grandeur of life in its unrelenting course.” —The Denver Post Stretching from the distant past into the remote future, from primordial Earth to the stars, Evolution is a soaring symphony of struggle, extinction, and survival; a dazzling epic that combines a dozen scientific disciplines and a cast of unforgettable characters to convey the grand drama of evolution in all its awesome majesty and rigorous beauty. Sixty-five million years ago, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, there lived a small mammal, a proto-primate of the species Purgatorius. From this humble beginning, Baxter traces the human lineage forward through time. The adventure that unfolds is a gripping odyssey governed by chance and competition, a perilous journey to an uncertain destination along a route beset by sudden and catastrophic upheavals. It is a route that ends, for most species, in stagnation or extinction. Why should humanity escape this fate? Praise for Evolution “Spectacular.”—The New York Times Book Review “Strong imagination, a capacity for awe, and the ability to think rigorously about vast and final things abound in the work of Stephen Baxter. . . . [Evolution] leaves the reader with a haunting portrayal of the distant future.”—Times Literary Supplement “A breath of fresh air . . . The miracle of Evolution is that it makes the triumph of life, which is its story, sound like the real story.”—The Washington Post Book World
In this book you will read all about inventors, bright minds and other brilliant science heroes of South Africa. You’ll read the stories of people who made medical breakthroughs. Stories about people who love animals and plants. Stories about people who try to understand the secrets of the sky. Stories about people who made interesting discoveries about fossils, the earth, water and the climate. This is a truly South African book that will inspire all readers to question, to explore and discover, and to create.
From learning the basics to producing impressive, yet cunningly simple, meals, Help! There's a Stove in My Kitchen gives you an easy way to get started in the kitchen. With over 170 recipes, Help! There's a Stove in My Kitchen is primarily a cookbook for school leavers and young adults who have mostly never had to cook for themselves and who need a few ideas on what to prepare and how to go about it. The recipes range from basic to impressive, but are all relatively quick and easy to make. In some cases, several options are given for one recipe, such as quiche fillings, to suit different tastes and to expand the budding cook's repertoire. Help! There's a Stove in My Kitchen takes into account budget, using mainly low-cost items and, where possible, a minimum number of ingredients. Also included are tips on saving electricity, time and energy around the home. Scattered throughout the book are the odd tips for fixing culinary mistakes. Armed with a cup, teaspoon and tablespoon, and a willingness to learn, Help! There's a Stove in My Kitchen is all that is needed to become a whiz in the kitchen.
Cheetah boasts that, because he can run faster than any other animal, he is the real king of the beasts. Wining a race against the other animals only reinforces his posturing. He boasts that he can even run faster than the wind. The wind takes up the challenge, leading to an outcome that keeps cheetah's tears running down his cheeks as a permanent reminder of his place in the natural world. How Cheetah Got His Tears is a story that warns of the perils of boasting, yet shows that the capacity to accept defeat with grace and humility can lead to reconciliation and acceptance.
