Don’t be Shy, Bushbaby

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.

Another thought-provoking story from Avril van der Merwe, 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), 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 the USA, where she works as an inspirational writer and speaker, while continuing to write children’s stories and adult fiction. Don’t be Shy, Bushbaby is drawn by Heidi-Kate Greeff, 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. She has illustrated all of Avril’s previous books for Puffin.