The Little Lemon Tree That Stood!: A nature story for 8-9 year olds and "young-at-hearts" adults. (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780620723558)

Marjolein was a kindergarten and art and craft teacher for the lower primary school grades for many years. She has taught moving toys and simple woodwork designs with relevant machinery to adults and older teenagers as an extra-mural activity. At present she has her own yoga studio at home and is about to complete 21 years of yoga teaching, 16 of which are full time. She has started a social enterprise in order to create work in her environment using African fabrics and recycled paper as well as local cottons in order to create sustainable products. The designs aim to be practical as well as artistic and relevant in our daily life. They are locally inspired and hope to improve the work possibilities of some people in our fragile economy. At present the yoga studio is supporting this initiative as a service. Marjolein was asked to write a school curriculum for the Kindergarten aged child and this was published in South Africa in 2003. Having helped children and adults explore their creativity Marjolein felt it was now incumbent on her to follow suit and create her own story after having told stories for decades in the classroom. And this is her first attempt. She knows full well that she is not a professional illustrator. She has more Academic than Art qualifications. However she is also convinced that we are all capable of producing our own unique art-works. The story of "The Little Lemon-Tree That Stood!" grew together with the illustrations. They developed hand in hand in a remarkably short time when she was faced with an unexpected and welcome holiday. This shows us that if we are given some SPACE we can fill it with our own inspirations and this can be a growth process where we do new things which we had not tried before. I am grateful for our modern technology and places such as CreateSpace where our artistic attempts can be shared and possibly followed by new initiatives. Marjolein grew up and went to school in The Netherlands and has lived in South Africa since (except for 4 year in the UK) and it is the exceptional rich and benevolent Nature of the Cape that has enthralled her. Cape Town is one of the most beautiful places in the world with its magnificent mountain, seas and winelands. Hence a nature story. Yes and the trees in the story are in her own garden with a view of Table Mountain!