Sunny the meerkat lives with his enormous family in the Kalahari desert. They are all very close ...so close, in fact, that one day Sunny decides he's had enough and packs his bags. He's off to visit his mongoose cousins. But from the watery world of the Marsh Mongoose to the nocturnal lifestyle of the Malagasy Mongoose, Sunny just doesn't fit in.

Sunny the meerkat lives with his enormous family in the Kalahari desert. They are all very close ...so close, in fact, that one day Sunny decides he's had enough and packs his bags. He's off to visit his mongoose cousins. But from the watery world of the Marsh Mongoose to the nocturnal lifestyle of the Malagasy Mongoose, Sunny just doesn't fit in. And who's that shadowy figure who seems to be following him around? A brilliant picture book from the winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal.

A restless meerkat's wanderjahr lasts just six days, but that's long enough to visit as many members of his far-flung clan. Chafing at his large family's Stay safe, stay together lifestyle, Sunny packs a suitcase and goes off to visit a string of relatives, from Liberian mongoose cousins Mildred and Frank to Great Aunt Flo the marsh mongoose - oblivious to the predatory hyena struggling along behind. Unhappily, as he reports back on a set of lift-the-flap picture postcards, none of the places he visits are as warm or comfortable as his familiar old burrow, so in the end it's back to the Kalahari. There he gets a big welcome party with a banner, hugs, a platter of yummy scorpions . . . and the frustrated hyena gets a jeering send-off. Gravett depicts the meerkats, the mongooses and their varied habitats in deftly brushed watercolors, adding lighthearted riffs (the postcard from Aunt Flo's swamp is an ad for the Dive-In Self-Service Restaurant ) and decorating the endpapers with faux photos and newspaper clippings. Along with humor and suspense, she folds snippets of natural history into the tale - and it's worth noting that meerkats outdo even kittens for cuteness and personality. (Picture book. 6-8) (Kirkus Reviews)