A quick glance at MR HARE MEETS MR MANDELA by Chris van Wyk, had me thinking this was another Peter Rabbit story, but of course it isn’t. Hare is a genuine African hare and he wears a with-it blue Mandela shirt. This is the old archetypal Hare character of Africa – full of bumptious self-confidence, and ready for a fall. Mr Hare finds a R200 note. Cunning as ever, he can’t read but he can recognise the picture of Nelson Mandela, so he sets off to return the note to him. Unfortunately, Mr Hare gets steadily fleeced along the way. So what he hands to the president is not an orange R200 but a green R10 note! However, he has met Mr Mandela – and so has the reader through kindly pictures and twinkling text. A large-paged picture book full of Africa, engagingly illustrated by Paddy Bouma. And a worthy final tribute to the late Mr Mandela and to the late Chris van Wyk – who has recently been awarded a Posthumous Literary Award for his additions to the literature of South Africa.
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