The Missing Ball

The Cool Nguni

by Maryanne Bester, Shayle Bester (Illustrator)

Gaps and his cousin Sugarbean want to play a game of soccer before sundown. Help them find their missing ball, hidden somewhere in this wonderful African setting.

The rhythmic text of the Cool Nguni series helps build children’s reading skills while they are absorbed in the inventive illustrations and the lives of the imaginative characters.

This is the fourth story about the Cool Nguni calf named Gaps from the award-winning Bester sisters. Gaps's real name is ‘Gaps Between the Branches’. This is because it looks like he is sitting in the shade of a tree, and the sun is making shadows on his hide. Sugarbean's name is 'Sugarbean' because her hide looks like speckled sugarbeans.

32 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2010

About the author

Sisters Maryanne and Shayle Bester have cooked up nine picture books together, all published by Jacana. Some of these feature Gaps, the Nguni calf, and his extended family. Others, like Three Friends and a Taxi, are light-hearted contemporary tales. Three Friends and a Taxi was a winner of the 2004 Sappi Isiqalo Book Competition and The Cool Nguni was one of the winners of the Exclusive Books IBBY SA Awards. The sisters grew up on a Free State farm but now live in Gauteng with an assortment of family and animals. All their stories draw on their deep affection for the people, places and eccentricities of Africa. (source: Jacana Media)