The
Wild Fluffalump is a delightful story written by
Mwenye Hadithi and illustrated by Adrienne Kennaway that will have children
engrossed until the very last page.
An unknown animal goes to sleep under a
tall Cotton Wool Tree, where the leopard’s child has been bouncing all night.
It wakes up looking like a giant white fluffy ball and doesn’t recognise itself
as its body is covered in cotton. The other animals wonder what animal it is
and try to discover what’s lurking under the cotton by patting, poking,
sniffing, scratching and washing it…
Bruce Hobson writes as Mwenye Hadithi
(meaning ‘story teller’ in Swahili). Born in Nairobi, he grew up in a house
with a wild garden, visited by gazelles and porcupines and warthogs. A
crocodile once went to sleep next to the ironing board and a hippopotamus got
stuck in the back gate. As a child he kept tarantula-like spiders as pets and
at school they were often confronted by baboons on the hockey field. From there
he went to Rugby School in England and studied foreign literature at London
University. This and his childhood, stirred by those traditional oral stories
from Africa where the foibles of village characters, thinly disguised as
animals, would lead to a moral lesson, inspired him to write.
Adrienne Kennaway grew up all over the
world, but spent most of her formative life in Kenya, where an interest in
wildlife soon turned to art. Ealing Art College in London and L’Academie Bella
Arte in Rome where she honed her skills. She has illustrated over 30 children’s
books and became notably successful for her vivid watercolour illustrations for
Mwenye Hadithi’s African folktale series. Kennaway’s illustrations for
Hadithi’s Crafty Chameleon won her
the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal in 1987. She now enjoys spending time in the
Irish countryside, capturing the local wildlife on canvas.
The
Wild Fluffalump is available in English, Afrikaans,
IsiXhosa and IsiZulu. Published in paperback children’s format size (275X240mm)
Price R120 ISBN 978-1-4314-2385-9
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