Open the door

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Open the door
Illustrated by Gabriella Jardine
Written by Jen Thorpe
Designed by Jacqui Botha
Edited by Diane Awerbuck
with the help of the Book Dash participants in Cape Town on 14 October 2023.
ISBN: 978-1-776325-25-2
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence  (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Open
the door

Gabriella Jardine			Jen Thorpe			Jacqui Botha

Olwethu wants to play pretend.
“I want to fly like a bird, swim like
a mermaid, roar like a lion”,
she tells Gogo.

But Gogo says,
“Not now, Olwethu.
It’s time to go
to school.”

STOMP! STOMP!
Olwethu’s feet go as she walks slowly to school.
But
what
is this?

There’s a door, covered in feathers.
Olwethu walks up to it and…

whoosh!

Olwethu is a bird in the sky!

ZOOOOM!
She’s flying!

Birds wave at
her as they fly by.

But what is this?
There’s another door,
covered in scales.

FLAP!
flap!
She flies over,
touches the
door and…

SPLiSH! splosh!

Olwethu is
a mermaid in
the ocean!
The fish smile at her as she swims by.

Splosh! Olwethu is a mermaid in the ocean!

But what is this?
There’s another door, shining bright like the sun.

She swims over, and…

GrrrrRRRRr!
Olwethu is a lion in the savannah.

She opens her
mouth and …

Roooaaarrrr!
Her voice is loud and powerful.
But what is this?

There’s another door, covered with photos of her friends.
She prowls over, holds
up her paw,
and…

whizz!
Olwethu is herself again.

She’s in her classroom
with her friends.

Teacher Songelwa says,
HMMMMMM...

...where have you been, Olwethu?’

wow!
Teacher, I’ve been everywhere!