Ins & Outs of Barbados 2020

110  SECTION INS& Sue Trew’s “What will your next book be about?” is a question often put to artist and author, Sue Trew. That’s because since 2012, Sue has been writing and illustrating children’s books, and each year her young fans keenly await the latest title in the ‘Turtle Tracks Family’. This year, Sue has exchanged the ocean - and her previous topics of turtles, hatchlings, conchs, manatees and dolphins - for the tree tops, writing about the Barbados green monkey in ‘Monkey Mischief’. “I’d never really drawn monkeys before, so I had to study how they move and practice sketching them,” says Sue. “We have a family of monkeys in our garden, so I just went outside and observed them.” The main character in her book is a monkey called Hug and Sue also incorporates a dog called Chips, who her family rescued as a puppy. In the book Chips loves to bark at monkeys as do many Bajan dogs! If you haven’t already discovered the Turtle Tracks Family series, but you’d like to read fun and fact- filled books to children under the age of ten, visit a Best of Barbados Gift Shop and start collecting! Each book has Sue’s beautiful illustrations and comes with unique plush toys of the main characters, which are fun for kids to collect. “I’ve always been keen on the environment,” says Sue, “and my hope is that with my series I am creating young conservationists, one book and toy at a time.” Growing Family Seven books now make up the Turtle Tracks Family, shown below with some of their character collectibles .