I dedicate this book to Honor Petrie of Mrs. Mattson’s class because she was happy I chose to study baboons. Of course, baboons are the main characters of my story.

One afternoon at the edge of a leafy forest in Arabia, Mother and Baby Baboon are lagging behind the troop. They have stopped for a drink of water from a refreshing puddle. The pebble trail gleams and the grass glimmers. A trio of seagulls squawks, circling above them. The sun shines while spring blooms peacefully.

Suddenly Mother Baboon hears a rustling in the grasses of the savannah. A ferocious, hungry, spotted leopard leaps out! Mother Baboon screeches to warn her troop, but they are nowhere to be seen. Mother and Baby Baboon are horrified! Baby Baboon dashes toward the forest, Mother Baboon behind him, hoping to outrun the beast.

A twilight sky swoops in to take its place in the day. Baby Baboon and Mother Baboon start to climb up a tall tree to hide from their predator. The leopard still trails behind them. He starts to claw the tree and tries to climb it, desperate to catch his prey. Then he lets out an unpleasant growl. Animals hiding in the forest scream, scared of the raging leopard.

Mother Baboon scowls and shows her sharp white teeth, trying to scare away the leopard. But the leopard will not move. Mother Baboon keeps hoping the troop will come but they never do. Then Mother and Baby Baboon climb up to the darkening treetops and hide, vanishing into the leaves. The leopard angrily walks away, back into the savannah. Once Mother Baboon is convinced, the leopard is gone, she leads Baby Baboon down the tree. They start to follow the footprints of fellow baboons. Mother Baboon still keeps her eyes alert at every step.

The great black night has appeared over the horizon. The moon is the only light in the sky that Mother and Baby Baboon can use. Finally, they see the outline of a baboon close by. They know that their troop is near. They happily prance toward their fellow baboons and reunite with their troop. They are together again.

About the Author

Clare Martin is a student from Mrs. Mattson’s 3rd grade class. She loves art and was happy to make this book using different papers and cutting them. She was also gleeful about using an animal she has been studying about. She loves animals and things baboons are truly amazing.

This is one of the many books that came to life while students in Mrs.

Mattson’s 3rd grade class explored the rich relationship between visual imagery

and the written word. This book was created as a part of Image-Making

Within the Writing Process, a dynamic art-and-literature-based approach to

writing developed by Beth Olshansky at the University of New Hampshire.

Image-Making uses hand-painted textured papers as the raw materials for

creating collage stories and poetry. Unlike a more traditional writing process,

within Image-Making the pictures always come first. This offers students with

diverse learning styles essential visual and kinesthetic tools for rehearsing,

drafting, and revising their ideas long before setting pencil to paper. Image-

Making was validated by the US Department of Education as an “innovative

and effective literacy program” in 1993. Today children around the world use

this process to create books in many languages.

Spring, 2010