148. More Meerkat Madness by Ian Whybrow

More Meerkat Madness by Ian Whybrow
Published April 2012 Harper Collins


From the publisher:


The Really Mad Mob of meerkats is on the move again in another animal antics adventure! Mimi, Skeema and Little Dream are unhappy when Uncle invites a fluffy, stranger to join the Really Mad mob. So when Little Dream dreams that their missing mama is calling him, the kits set off to search for her. But a lost lion cub has other plans for them! Join the meerkat kits on a crazy adventure across the Kalahari desert.


This book is so sweet.  Meet the Meerkats, Mimi Skeema and Little Dream, living their life in the Kalahari desert in their home Far Burrow.  Their mother has left the (presumed dead) and they are under the care of their Uncle Fearless.  This cosy picture of domestic bliss is disturbed when Uncle Fearless brings his lady friend, the lovely Radiant into the mix.  These kits don;t want this new interloper, they want their mum, so they decide to cross the Kalahari and find her.



So begins their adventure.  The three intrepid adventurers meet up with lion cub Grif, who is looking for his own mum.  The unlikely team encounter  the Dammit-Grabbim tribe (hunters/poachers) not to be confused with the Click-click tribe (tourists.photographers)  the meerkats are used to.  The Dammit-Grabbims grab Grif and the little kits do the only thing they can...try to help him escape.

Apart from being a cute story, this book is packed full of meerkat facts.  The facts are displayed in fact boxes or fact files, but the information is scattered throughout the story.  For example, the fact that meerkats need to warm themselves up when the sun comes up, the fact that one meerkat stands as a lookout when the others are searching for food, we also learn what they eat, and what animals consider them prey.

The only thing that would be unlikely to occur is the relationship between the meerkats and the lion cub, but this isn't non fiction, it;s a story, so we can let that one go.

It's a fun simple story, the second about this particular group of meerkats, the first book being Meerkat Madness and their will be another one later this year.

Who will like this book: Boys and girls age 7+
Read it if you like: Penguin Pandemonium by Jeanne Wilis