Fynbos Fairies, by Antjie Krog and Fiona Moodie
Fynbos Fairies, by Antjie Krog and Fiona Moodie. Random House Struik Umuzi. 2 nd edition. Cape Town, South Africa 2016. ISBN 9781415209035 / ISBN 978-1-41520-903-5
The fairies and other imaginary beings in Fynbos Fairies are Fiona Moodie's own creations, but the flowers and creatures she copied from nature.
Fynbos Fairies is a richly-illustrated children’s book about South African flower fairies, with rhymes by Antjie Krog and format-filling colour illustrations by Fiona Moodie.
There is a fairy living around each species of Cape Fynbos.... It is for its fynbos, fine-leaved, shrub-like vegetation, that the southwestern and southern Cape has been named one of the worlds six plant kingdoms: the Cape Floral Kingdom. At less than 90 000 square kilometres, it is the smallest floral kingdom on earth. Yet it is home to 8 600 plant species, some 5 000 of which occur nowhere else in the world. Fynbos is a mixture of four plant types: protea shrubs, heath-like ericas, reed-like restios and different bulbous plants. The Cape Floral Kingdom contains 69 of the worlds 112 proteas, 526 of its 740 ericas and, among bulbous plants, 96 of the worlds 160 gladiolus species. Table Mountain alone boasts almost 1 500 fynbos species. With Fynbos Fairies, Antjie Krog and Fiona Moodie, both of whom regularly walk on the slopes of Table Mountain, pay homage to one of the natural wonders of the world. Inspired by Cicely Mary Barkers A World of Flower Fairies, Antjie began the process by writing poems that each featured a plant and at least one imaginary little being. Fiona meticulously researched the features of each plant, insect and little animal depicted in these pages. The fairies and other imaginary beings in these pages are her own creations, but the flowers and creatures she copied from nature. Antjie Krog had been enchanted by children’s verse as a child. To read rhymes to a child, witnessing how sound illuminates an unforgettable dimension is one of the joys of her life. For Fiona Moodie, illustrating these poems was a great pleasure as they reminded her of the imagined world that she inhabited as a happy but solitary child, growing up on a farm in the Boland. It was a delight to be painting flowers and she hopes that her pictures may help to awaken in children an interest in the natural beauty that surrounds them in South Africa.
This is an excerpt from the children's book: Fynbos Fairies, by Antjie Krog and Fiona Moodie.
Title: Fynbos Fairies
Author: Antjie Krog
Illustrations: Fiona Moodie
Genre: Children’s book, poetry
Publisher: Random House Struik
Imprint: Umuzi
2 nd edition. Cape Town, South Africa 2016
ISBN 9781415209035 / ISBN 978-1-41520-903-5
Hardcover, 24 x 34 cm, 30 pages, 15 large illustrations
Krog, Antjie und Moodie, Fiona im Namibiana-Buchangebot
Fynbos Fairies
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