Featured books

Theo lives with his mother, his brother and his sister, right next to the library. One day he sees a poster in the library. All the animals have been invited to join the circus. Theo sees the same poster on a van but notices that there is more information underneath. What he finds out is enough to make his whiskers curl ...

The Three Billy Goats Gruff are hungry and tired of living in the dusty and thorny veld. Just across the bridge there is a koppie covered in sweet, green grass that they would love to eat. But they are afraid of the fierce monster who lives under the bridge. One day they are so hungry that they decide to be brave and cross the bridge. Will they outsmart the monster or will he catch them and gobble them up?

King Lion used to have a very soft voice. He didn’t sound like a powerful king of the beasts at all. The other animals had no warning of danger when he was out hunting. A big meeting was called to try and solve this problem.

The animals made various suggestions but none were acceptable. Then Nogwaja, the crafty Hare, came up with a clever idea. And this is how it came about that today Lion has the mighty roar that befits the king of the beasts!

There once was a girl named Sindiwe Magona. She had a special gift for stories. At night, little Sindiwe’s grandmother told her magical stories about ogres and giants, animals of the forests and the little creatures of the veld. This was Sindiwe’s favourite time. See how she grows up to live out her own adventures and she travels over oceans to change the world with her stories. 

It is the fourth term and BFFs Nina and Jessie can’t wait for their school inter house athletics meeting. Nina’s favourite event is the high jump, but the new girl in their grade is giving Nina a run for her money! Soon after Nina’s journalist father takes them along to visit the new sports drink factory in town, the two friends find themselves in a mystery involving a mad scientist, more frogs than they can handle, a pet rat and a few crazy zits . . .

'Monkey business' is written in verse with a simple rhyming scheme. A family has a picnic in an area where there are monkeys. The monkeys watch the humans drink beer and smoke cigarettes. When the picnic is over, the people leave, leaving all their litter behind. The curious monkeys copy what the humans did. They drink beer, smoke cigarette butts and set fire to the forest. Feeling ill from beer and cigarettes and frightened by the fire, the monkeys work together to tidy up and set things right. They realise that certain human habits are not worth copying.

In a village on the slopes of Mount Kenya, a little girl worked in the fields with her mother. She worried as she saw the big forests disappearing, but she knew the power of a tiny seed.

Thunder and lightning is a tale from a long time ago when thunder and lightning lived with the people on Earth. Thunder was an old sheep and her son, the young ram, was lightning. Each time the humid weather came before the rains, Ram would get irritable and lose his temper. He would flash with anger and cause destructive fires in the village. His mother would shout loudly in a rumbling voice. When the villagers have enough of this, they finally banish Ram and his mother from the village and order them to live in the sky - where they live to this day.

Jackson the donkey works very hard, carrying loads of mealies, carrots and potatoes up the hill to the market every week, from the little farm where he lives with the farmer, his wife Beauty and his son Goodwill. But one day Jackson just stops halfway up the hill. The farmer pushes him, pulls him, shouts at him. But Jackson WILL NOT BUDGE.
Just as the farmer is about to beat his donkey, little Goodwill comes running up the hill. Quickly he whispers something in the donkey’s ear – and straightaway the old donkey gets to his feet. The farmer is astonished. What could be the secret of the boy’s message?