Product Description
The Wildest Dog and other African Tales
Author: Avril van der Merwe • Illustrator: Heidi-Kate Greeff
Format: Paperback
Recommended for ages 5+
The Wildest Dog and Other African Tales introduces a new story to this popular series. Allthe animals, including his own pack, think Wild Dog is too wild. In fact, he’s the wildest dogthey’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 hisfather 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 thatmay trouble young children.
Wild Dog’s hyperactive nature gets him into trouble, Pangolinuses her intelligence to outsmart Lion and discovers new friends in the process, Bushbaby’snocturnal habits lead the animals to assume he is shy, Hyena mistakenly thinks that if shechanges her identity she’ll be accepted, Hippo’s envy of Rhinoceros’ horn ends up creatingmore trouble than she anticipated, while Cheetah learns that his bragging doesn’t impresshis friends. Each animal character faces a challenge, but with plenty of encouragement andsupport from their friends, a lesson is learned and the outcome is always positive.
About the Author
Avril van der Merwe is the author of How Cheetah Got His Tears (Puffin Books, 2017), Once Upon a Rhinoceros (Puffin Books, 2018), and I Don't Want to be a Hyena (Puffin Books, 2019), Don't Be Shy, Bushbaby (Puffin Books, 2021), as well as several prize-winning children's stories set in Africa. She developed a love of illustrated children's fiction during a decade working as a Montessori pre-primary teacher in Cape Town, and high school English teacher in Johannesburg. Avril grew up in South Africa, but now lives in Seattle, USA, where she works as an inspirational writer and speaker, while continuing to write children's stories and adult fiction.
About the Illustrator
Heidi-Kate Greeff is a Cape Town-based illustrator with a degree in Fine Art from the University of Pretoria, and a love for creating animal characters that capture our hearts.
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