The Girl and the Wildlife Club

Maya notices a small brown sparrow splashing in a puddle outside her window one sunny morning and wants to share such moments with her friends. At school she talks with Theo, who already knows six kinds of birds, and Priya, who enjoys planting things, and the three of them decide to start a wildlife club. Maya's grandfather, Grandpa Lee, places three chairs in a circle beneath the old oak tree and teaches them the first rule of watching wildlife: quiet feet and kind eyes. We look, we learn, and we never chase or grab.

Guided by Grandpa Lee, the club plants a bird garden with sunflowers and purple coneflowers, fills nature journals with sketches and notes, builds a low fence of sticks to keep a creeping cat away, and creates a bright green display board for the school hallway. When a cardboard box holding two baby birds turns up by the fence, the children must put their rule into practice and wait from a distance instead of touching. This gentle story by Çınar BİBER follows their small, patient acts of care, and it can be read on Masalcı Baba.