23/04/2026
Today is World Book Day — and today, I finally get to tell you about mine!
Deep in the South African bushveld, where the moon rises like a pearl over the acacia trees and dragonflies dance above the river like tiny flying jewels, a young elephant named Eloise sits alone.
She asks too many questions. She doesn't fit in. Her brother is cruel, her mother too busy, and the other young elephants just want to play games she doesn't understand. She feels invisible. Broken. Like she is too much and not enough, all at the same time.
But the wind is whispering. And the dragonflies are waiting.
What begins as one brave step across a forbidden river becomes a journey that changes everything. Guided by four ancient Wise Ones — Sophia the great Baobab Mother, Luna the Moon Goddess, Aurora the Sun Angel, and the Wind itself — Eloise discovers a truth that was inside her all along. Along the way she finds friends who know exactly what it feels like to not belong. None of them fit in. Together, they belong.
The Wise Ones: Magical Messages from the African Bushveld is a story about the magic that lives inside all of us — in the questions we're afraid to ask, in the parts of ourselves we've been taught to hide, in the wisdom that has been whispering to us our whole lives.
All we have to do is listen.
✍️ Written by Larissa Mulder-Barnett | 🎨 Illustrated by Elli Wahl
