What the Animals Were Waiting For

Cowbells tinkle. And over there, a family of elephants munches on dry grass, flaps huge ears like slow fans, and waits. It is a time of waiting. The gazelles, the wildebeest and the zebras are all waiting. The lions, too, and the crocodiles are waiting. Little Tepi watches the animals and wonders what is coming. Soon there will be rain, and food for everyone! In simple, stirring verse, this stunningly illustrated picture book tells the story of the dramatic cycles of life on the Masai Mara range in Africa — one of the last great, wild places on Earth.

Nabulela: A South African Folk Tale

When the village girls cruelly trick the daughter of their king, he will forgive them only if they kill Nabulela, a treacherous white-skinned monster. A tale of the Nguni people

Sungura and Leopard: A Swahili Trickster Tale

A small but clever hare and a fierce leopard agree to share a house, but as the hare’s family grows, he realizes that he must find a way to get rid of his bad-tempered neighbor.

Caring for Cheetahs

Author Rosanna Hansen travels to Namibia, Africa, to help cheetahs, one of the worlds endangered species. She helps save a cheetah cub from a life-threatening injury. She pets a thoroughly tame cheetah. She sets up a cheetah race. (Cheetahs love to run.) And she meets many cheetahs that are not so tame. Humans are taking over cheetah habitat, so the world’s fastest runners are running out of space and hanging on in low numbers. People are working to save them one by one through organizations like the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), which runs the reserve the author visits. Young readers will revel in this up-close perspective on the magnificent cheetah.