Author tells her tale from lockdown and how it also affected our relationships with our beloved pets

Career development facilitator releases Children’s Book about pets in hard lockdown

CityLife Arts Writer

What does an energetic, cottage-bound dog do when faced with the devastating hard lockdown of March 2020? He nags and performs and rallies every force he can think of, until his owner gets the message. He can’t possibly be confined to their small garden for 21 days. He needs to go to the park.

What does an enthusiastic facilitator of a creative career development programme do when hard lockdown halts her offering at the point of its launch? She practices what she preaches and taps every inner and outer resource she can think of until she gets the idea of writing a book about a lively dog, an ancient dog, a wise old cat, a stuffed toy monkey and a “Parktown prawn” in hard lockdown. She can’t possibly offer her face-to-face programme online. She needs to make a living.

Lorraine Silverman is a former teacher, now an education, training and development practitioner. Her book, Stavros and the Great Lockdown Negotiation, is her debut and the first book in the Granny Ellie and Friends series. The book is developed around a collection of cell phone pictures and some nifty design work by Sandile Nkosi and Debbie Smit. It encourages its readers to change their thinking when their circumstances change. This is the stuff resilience is made of. Lockdown has been an almost surreal experience for people the world over. Most people have had to re-think what is important to them and discover the essence of what makes them happy.

For Stavros life is simple – all you need is love, food and space to explore. He and Velvet, the cat, join forces in pressuring their owner, Granny Ellie, to negotiate a solution to their untenable situation. Red One, the old dog, is an unaware beneficiary of the happy outcome of this negotiation. The blue-faced monkey is an interested observer and the Parktown prawn is the distraction test for the determined Stavros.

Stavros and the Great Lockdown Negotiation is available as a printed book from Anthos Career Options off-site office.

Contact details

Email: traindo@global.co.za

Phone: 083 262 5037