The Boy and the Shoebill

Eight-year-old Milo is a boy full of questions, and every Saturday he heads to the wetland at the edge of town with his yellow rain boots, sketchbook and pencil. One day he meets a tall grey bird with long thin legs and an enormous shoe-shaped beak, standing perfectly still among the reeds. Rather than running, Milo breathes slowly, stays put and starts to draw, and a wildlife guide named Ada soon introduces him to the shoebill and shows him how to watch it patiently.

On each return visit Milo fills his pages with sketches, arrows and notes about how the bird waits and watches, then swishes its beak through shallow water to flip up small silver fish. Ada teaches him that good explorers watch more than they talk, and the shoebill slowly lets him come closer. This gentle tale by Ebru Mina TOMURCUK follows a curious child who turns observation into knowledge, and it can be read on Onlinemasal Com.Tr.