Patricia Furstenberg, Author of Historical Fiction, Kids Books
Travel Through Stories
Discover Why Rhino is Grumpy and Hippo is Mad at Hare, a humorous story after an African folktale that also teaches a lesson or two. Part one.
In African folktale Rabbit is often the trickster, as can be the mouse or the snake. The two large animals who are tricked are most commonly an elephant and a hippopotamus, but a rhinoceros is also sometimes mentioned.
Continue reading “Why Rhino is Grumpy and Hippo is Mad at Hare”
African wild dog or die Afrika Wilde Honde in Afrikaans, is a wilding with as many nicknames as, well, a pack of dogs: African hunting dog, Cape hunting dog, wild dog, hyena dog, painted wolf, painted dog, or – my favorite – ornate wolf. To the scientific world it is known as Lycaon pictus.
Enjoy the next installment in the series Babadiertjies van Afrika, baby animals from Africa.
Continue reading “Why African Wild Dogs Hunt Impalas and Zebras, die Afrika Wilde Honde”
When Cheetah First Cried is a retelling of an African folk story that explains why cheetahs have two vertical lines on their faces.
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Dacian Horses of Bronze Age is part of the 100 words story series and is a tale inspired by the taming of the first free horses that roamed Transylvania’s lands, in Romania.
Continue reading “Dacian Horses of Bronze Age #Im4Ro”
A recent discovery of snake fossils proved that snakes used to have limbs, so let’s imagine how the snake lost its legs in a short story from the series Babadiertjies van Afrika, baby animals from Africa.
The colors of the desert were red, its tall dunes were red, punctuated by green grass clumps. These were the colors the boy knew best. Oh, and the sky’s bright blue that the dune’s sharp crests profiled against.
Continue reading “How the Snake Lost Its Legs”