Some more tales from the waterhole
Port Elizabeth’s Max Hoppe has launched an entertaining new children’s book, his second in a series titled Tales from the Waterhole.
Bay artist Jeannine Dickie created the ink illustrations for
A Hyena’s Tail, which was launched at the St George’s Preparatory School library on October 25.
A Hyena’s Tail is Hoppe’s second children’s book following Santa’s New Helpers, which was released in November 2016. Both are published by El Gecko, the small publishing house he and his wife, Sue, operate from their Richmond Hill home.
The Hoppes are also known for their travel titles with a local flavour, including The Climax Collection and Travels/Troubles with Koos series.
A Hyena’s Tail is about hungry hyenas Harry and Henry who discover that, just because an animal looks small and helpless, it is not always easy prey.
Manny the mongoose and Gilbert the ground squirrel come up with a crafty plan to make sure Manny doesn’t become the hyenas’ next meal!
“The inspiration comes to me in a flash,” Hoppe said.
“That first draft just flows. But then of course it’s reading; re-reading and editing; getting Sue to read it . . . 10 or 12 edits later the book is ready.”
Finding the right illustrator was vital, he said.
Bay artist and architect Theresa Hardman did the first book but wasn’t available for the second, and so the Hoppes had to look elsewhere.
They were at a fair in Walmer when they spotted Dickie’s art on display.
“I looked at it and said ‘that’s perfect!’ and so we got hold of her,” Hoppe said.
“It’s been a really fun collaboration; she’d never done anything like this before and was really thrown into the deep end.”
Six months later, the book was ready for print and Dickie, who did the artwork at night and over weekends, is about to start on the third in the series,
A Gnu’s Tail.
Six or seven other completed Tales from the Waterhole
stories are yet to be illustrated and two are in the process of being written.
The Hoppes are great nature lovers and inspiration for the tales came from their visits to Southern Africa’s national parks.
Dickie is not a full-time artist but has a law degree and owns an employment agency in Port Elizabeth.
She did art in matric but didn’t keep it up “because life happened, then business happened and then children happened”.
She began oil painting in 2012 “but the oil took too long to dry and I’m am impatient person”, she chuckled.
That led to her discovery of inks – and a love of illustration and story-telling.
Dickie’s illustrations for A
Hyena’s Tail are delightful but the process was not without its challenges at first.
“I could not draw a hyena and had to get the anatomy and expressions right.
“And I had to learn how to mix ink, water and Jik in the right measures to control whether the picture was bleached out completely and to control the strength of the ink,” she said.
● A Hyena’s Tail retails for R180. To order books, e-mail
publishing@elgecko.co.za or visit elgeckopublishing.co.za.
For original illustrations and archival prints contact Jeannine Dickie on 082-822-7591 or
jeannined@outlook.com