The Girl and the Wallaby

Maya is a curious girl with warm brown skin and curly black hair in two puffy buns. Each morning she packs her green canvas satchel with a notebook and a pencil and sets off to explore the grassy hill near her cozy house. One sunny day she meets a reddish-brown wallaby with a cream belly, gentle dark eyes and a woven grass collar, and she sits down quietly to watch. Soon a tiny joey peeks out from the mother's pouch, and Maya begins the careful, patient habit of returning each day to observe, sketch and write down what she sees.

With her notebook and later a small pair of binoculars, Maya records the joey's first wobbly hop, the milk it drinks inside the pouch, and the way the mother wallaby cleans its fur and keeps it close. She brings her questions to Grandma Ruth, who wears round glasses and listens carefully, and she shares her drawings and facts with friends and family, even making a little booklet of her notes. This gentle tale by Çınar BİBER can be read on Masalcı Baba and offers young readers a quiet introduction to observation and the life of a marsupial family.