Originally published as part of a 7-part series called The Monday 2 Sunday Bedtime Book. This heart- warming and educational book is just perfect for a cuddly bedtime story session with your little ones. Meet Caterpillar and Silkworm as they emerge from their tiny little eggs. Watch them grown and learn about each insect's special purpose on earth. Illustrated with a combination of hand drawn and digital images of real insects. Written by South African Author Joan Bottriell, whose Hamish the Hamster Series was a part of the National Reading Curriculum in South Africa for many years translated into English and Afrikaans. Joan has always been an advocate for education and inclusion, reaching out across cultural divides and creating content for all of the World's children. Contact can be established via www.sandybigara.com/contact
About the Author: After a lifetime of writing short stories for newspapers and magazines, she discovered that she had a great talent for writing Children's stories. Always interested in writing, she tried many avenues before attempting Children's Literature in her late fifties. She started off with one story about a Golden Hamster named Hamish whose South African adventures ended up being a series of nine books. Hamish's Adventures are set in venues all over this beautiful country. With completion of the first book the long battle began of finding an International publisher that would publish books with South African content at that difficult time in our history. The International Publishers stated that they "lacked an International application". The long battle ended with completion of Book No. 9 and acceptance of the full series by a South African Publisher. Passed as a South African Supplementary Reader by the Transvaal Department of Education, "Hamish the Golden Hamster" series, wonderfully illustrated by her brother-in-law Roger Parkinson, did reach a large number of primary schools all over Southern Africa. The books also reached blind and partially sighted children, being recorded by Tape Aids for the Blind and also being produced by them in Braille and Large Print. Disappointingly, this publishing company and the retail book trade could not reach agreement on price and the books never reached the National bookshops. A single mother to two teenage daughters, Joan eventually had to suppress her dream of making some sort of living as a full time author and settled for the well-paid, stable life of a valued P.A. She also remarried at about this time. Things eased for her time-wise when the girls were fully grown, and she eventually retired, but it was only after the death of her beloved husband Robert in 2007 that Joan's suppressed authorship dream surfaced once again! The result has turned out to be something of a family affair ... a set of seven bedtime stories by Joan titled The Monday2Sunday Bedtime Book beautifully illustrated jointly by brother-in-law Roger, of Hamish fame and Joan's talented Granddaughter Sandy Bigara, who also heads up a publishing company called Home Grown South Africa. Following hot on the trail of the bedtime book has come A2Z Single Sound Stories a teaching aid containing a story for each of the 26 letters of the alphabet, designed to introduce single sounds, encourage listening skills and help young children build their vocabulary.