Oom Kallas is a farm worker with much experience of the veldt. He speaks Afrikaans – and for those not bilingual, his words are translated in the wide margins of this attractive storybook. The whole situation becomes far more exciting and frightening when a fire sweeps through the Cape mountains. Thanks to gallant fire-fighters and water-bearing helicopters, and Oom Kallas’s bravery, many tortoises are rescued. A reality adventure, enriched with Meg Jordi’s colour pictures: decoratively informative in places and dramatic in others.