Lina, the Duiker and the Dragonfly

Lina accompanies her grandfather into the forest to search for healing plants when they meet up with a game warden who tells them about po achers’ snares that he has discovered. Lina is told to wait and sit on a rock while her grandfather, Pa’Tuusi, and the warden look for the snares. She is frightened of being alone; she can’t ‘talk’ to the animals the way her grandfather does, but then a dragonfl y attracts her attention and she follows it to fi nd a little duiker caught in a snare. She loses her way, but elephants help her and the duiker find their way back to her grandfather. The story is intriguing, with a slight amount of tension to keep it interesting.

Says author Lisa Steyn: ‘South Africa has so many cultures that have deep historic connections to the land and nature, and that is what inspired me to tell a contemporary story of a little girl of Khoekhoe descent, who’s grandfather still knows some of the ancient ways … the nearly inexplicable connection that the First People of this land had with their environment, and some still have, seems to me like pure natural magic.’