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The Ako Books
In Malagasy and English for ages 4-10. They are
read-aloud books, with repeated lines that children can say, or
else a series of lemur noises that children can copy.
Published in the USA by Lemur Conservation Foundation, and in
the UK/Madagascar by Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.
Ako the Aye-aye
Ako (his name means Echo) is a little aye-aye who really likes
to play. His species is solitary so he plays with his food and
his mother’s tail. He finds and loses a brown lemur playmate.
Finally he is so busy hanging by his feet that he forgets to be
scared of humans. Visitors to the reserve see him playing
and stop being scared of the ill-luck supposed to be brought by
aye-ayes.
Bitika the Mouselemur
 Bitika
is a baby lemur of the smallest species in Madagascar. (Bitika
means Tiny.) She ventures out of the nest and meets all the
larger lemur species of the baobab forest: the chorus is “Bitika
felt small.” Then she saves her mother’s life from a
white-browed owl. She ends up feeling like the biggest lemur in
all Madagascar!
Tik-Tik the Ringtailed Lemur
 Tik-Tik is an adolescent male ringtailed lemur growing up in a
species where females are totally dominant, and young males must
emigrate to new troops. Tik-Tik means “Let’s go!” in ringtailed
lemur sounds. He leaves his mother’s troop to travel alone
through the cactus-like spiny forest. He fights his rival,
Longtooth, and wins the beautiful Feather-Fur. Ringtail social
calls appear in context so children can click, meow, purr, howl,
squeak, shout war-cries, give alarm calls, and sing the male
sunset song.
Bounce the White Sifaka
  Bounce is a young sifaka lemur who lives among karst pinnacles,
Madagascar’s “stone forest” He falls down a crevasse where
his family cannot reach him. He is frightened by bats, a snake,
carnivorous cockroaches, and lastly a fossa, the largest
predator of Madagascar. He finally leaps to safety on his
mother’s back.
Furry and Fuzzy the Red Ruffed Lemur Twins
 Furry and Fuzzy live on the Masoala Peninsula where the
rainforest goes down to the sea, and the trees are so tall that
even their mother has never been to the ground. The branch
where she parks them breaks in a cyclone. They fall by a
forester’s hut. The forester’s wife wants to cook the baby
lemurs, the twin children want them as pets, but the forester
says “Suppose you were lost and the lemurs wanted to make pets
of you!”
No-Song the Indri
No-Song, a two-year old indri, lives in highland rainforest. Her
family sings beautifully but she is too young to sing.
Everything in the forest makes noises: trees, bees, birds,
frogs, even a mosquito, but No-Song cannot sing. She
finally understands what the indri songs mean during a
territorial battle, and at last finds her own voice.
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