The Little Optimist

For every book sold, we donate a FREE book to a marginalised child in Africa, through the Little Optimist Trust. www.thelittleoptimist.org

Too small, too slow and too square to be a real sailing boat, this is what the bigger sailing boats tell the Little Optimist. Yet this Little Optimist has a huge heart! One dark night, a storm blows up. With a friend in trouble, who will save the day?

In April 2016, Greg Bertish sailed a children's Optimist dinghy around the Cape of Storms. He crossed False Bay, rounded Cape Point and headed for the beautiful Langebaan lagoon on the wild West Coast.

His 200-kilometre journey matched the 200 days he had spent in hospital fighting life-threatening heart infections.

He raised ZAR 300 000 towards the new ICU at Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital, and later went on to raise a further 1 million ZAR to paint and renovate the hospital.

Greg hopes this journey of a REAL Little Optimist and book about a little believer with a HUGE heart will help to teach kids that being small, sick, poor or different is OK. They too can go on to survive and thrive. This story will inspire kids to believe in themselves, get better, be better and follow their passions and dreams.

Greg Bertish was an insecure and bullied child with bad acne. He thought he would never amount to much. Later in life he was forced to spend over 200 days in hospital and under went two cardiac surgeries due to a tropical bacterium that infected his heart. Greg has since gone on to become a respected big wave surfer, a South African champion Lifesaver and Springbok stand up paddle boarder. Greg is the founder of the Shark Spotter Program and The Little Optimist Trust. He is an ambassador for the Children's Hospital Trust and The National Sea Rescue Institute and has helped raise over 3 million rand for these organisations to date. He continues to promote healthy living, conservation, water safety and optimism. He inspires kids and adults through his unique talks, projects and adventures.

CHIP SNADDON was born in Estcourt (KZN) in 1964 and went to Hilton College where he matriculated in 1982. But it would be in Cape Town where he'd cut his teeth as an editorial cartoonist with the UDF paper 'South' in the late 1980's.A highly talented artist, Chip divides his drawing time between cartooning and illustrating books and storyboards for the advertising industry. His creative employment of perspective and his trademark parallel lined hatching are legendary.In 1998 he joined 'The Argus' as their resident cartoonist and - save a year's break during 2005/6 - has been with them ever since. Chip lives in the house he built in Kommetjie, Cape Town, is an avid surfer, and dreams of living a sustainable lifestyle off the grid.