The Otter's Secret Painting

Pip is a young otter with glossy chocolate-brown fur and a cream-coloured chest, living by a gentle river that curls and whispers. Every morning he paddles out to watch the light dance on the water, and his greatest love is painting. He keeps a little paint set in a hollow log and wears a faded blue apron smeared with every colour of the river. Yet whenever anyone comes near, Pip hides his pictures under a pile of leaves, whispering that they are not good enough.

Pip's best friend is Kiki, a kingfisher who flashes over the water like a jewel. One afternoon Kiki slips into Pip's hollow log to borrow moss for her nest and discovers dozens of paintings stacked neatly inside: the river at sunrise, the tall reeds, the leaping fish, and even a tiny portrait of herself. She decides the secret must be shared and quietly invites the rabbit in her red neck scarf and the hedgehog in his round spectacles to a surprise exhibition on the riverbank. Pip, frightened that his work will be laughed at, hides behind a bush until his friends show him what his paintings mean to them. This warm, gentle tale by Çınar BİBER follows a shy artist learning that feelings he cannot put into words can reach others through his pictures. It can be read on Masalcı Baba.