Monthly letter from Kathy Lasky

Hello Ga’Hoole Readers:

I am back after many weeks of traveling. I was in Moscow, Russia for a week talking to kids in schools. And then I was in South Africa. I am a Unicef volunteer and I was going to look at various Unicef projects especially those that are concerned with helping orphans. This was both an inspiring and a somewhat sad trip.

But while I was in South Africa I did visit some game parks and saw some really cool animals—lions, herds of giraffes, zebras, white rhinos—which by the way are not white but dark gray. I’m not quite sure why they call white rhinos. I don’t know why they call one white and the other black, at least their color is about the same. But the white ones eat ground vegetation and the black ones eat stuff from lower tree branches.

Actually the most interesting animal that I saw was a pack of wild dogs. These dogs are endangered and could be the most savage looking animals you’ve ever seen. Their fur is like camouflage patches of brown, yellow, black and white. They have the nastiest teeth imaginable and our guide told us that when they chase prey they don’t try to just tackle them and kill them but take bites out of them as they run! Is that gross or what. I have been contemplating putting wild dogs in some the Ga’Hoole books.

Speaking of which, this letter has to be short because I am late with book number eleven, the title of which at this time I think is To Be A King.

Happy Holidays!

All my best,

Kathryn