Sherman & Geynes episode 2 continues:
Story continues tomorrow 😀
Or if you can’t wait, click here to read the whole story right now.
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children’s story, vegan children, comic, vegan comic, humour, imagination, vegan children’s story, eccentric story
Story continues tomorrow 😀
Or if you can’t wait, click here to read the whole story right now.
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children’s story, vegan children, comic, vegan comic, humour, imagination, vegan children’s story, eccentric story
Photo by David Mark of Pixabay
Basking Sharks are so named because they’re often seen feeding at the surface of the water where they look like they’re basking in the sun! They are enormous and often spotted in UK waters during summer months.
APPEARANCE:
Apart from their large size, Basking Sharks have:
COLOUR:
They tend to be greyish-brown with a lighter underbelly. Often they have irregular patches, patterns and streaks on their flanks and fins. Using photo-ID we can use these distinct markings to identify individual Basking Sharks.
SIZE:
The largest reported Basking Shark was 12m long. But most don’t get bigger than 9.8m.
WEIGHT:
The average Basking Shark weighs 4.5 tonnes. Yet, they can weigh up to 7 tonnes!
DIET:
Basking Sharks eat zooplankton. This includes small copepods, barnacles, decapod larvae, fish eggs and shrimp. They’re one of 3 filter-feeding sharks but are the only species that feeds entirely passively. They swim through the water with their mouth wide open, rather than actively sucking water in. Only closing their mouths to swallow their food. Long comb-like structures on their gills (known as gill-rakers) trap and filter zooplankton. These can strain up to 2000 tonnes of water per hour!
REPRODUCTION:
It’s thought that Basking Sharks live for at least 50 years. Males reach maturity at 12–16 years. And females at 20 years (around 4.6-6.1m in length).
Females produce eggs, which develop and hatch inside their body. They then give birth to fully developed young, which are around 1–1.7m long. This makes Basking Shark pups larger at birth than many species of shark are fully grown!
There’s little data on Basking Shark reproduction. But pregnancy is thought to last around 14 months. There’s only ever been one reported catch of a pregnant female (1943), who was carrying 6 pups. This suggests that Basking Sharks give birth in areas of low, or no fishing pressure.
BEHAVIOUR:
Basking Sharks are quite social. They can be seen on their own, in small groups, or, schools of hundreds. There are many reports of same size and sex groups. Suggesting a strong sexual and age segregation within the species.
Despite their size, Basking Sharks are capable of leaping clear out of the water. A behaviour known as breaching. They seem to breach most when in large groups and during courtship, so this may act as a social or sexual function. It could also help to dislodge external parasites.
Info from sharktrust.org/about-basking-sharks
Basking Sharks are long lived, slow growing and produce few young. This makes them extremely vulnerable to human impacts. Although Basking Sharks are now one of the most heavily protected sharks in UK and EU waters, they continue to face threats from human activities:
ENTANGLEMENT
Basking Sharks easily become entangled in fishing nets and ropes. Unless fishermen are on hand to quickly release them, they often die. Although some do manage to disentangle themselves. You can sometimes see scarring and abrasions caused by nets on their dorsal fin.
BOAT-STRIKE
Propeller and boat strikes remain a serious danger for Basking Sharks. Particularly in summer months when they’re feeding at the surface. Basking Sharks rarely evade approaching boats. So it’s common for them to have scarring and sometimes horrific injuries from collisions.
HARASSMENT
Basking Sharks are very sensitive to disturbance and harassment by people. In all the excitement of seeing Basking Sharks, boats and jet-ski’s often end up striking them. As well as causing physical harm, water-users can also disrupt their natural behaviour. Such as feeding, courting and mating.
FISHERIES
Basking Shark fisheries worldwide have all but collapsed. Although in some parts of the world they continue, driven by demand for shark fins. Basking Sharks are also still caught as bycatch in nets intended for other species.
Info from sharktrust.org/basking-shark-threats
To learn how you can help basking sharks go to sharktrust.org/how-can-you-help-basking-sharks
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After giving up refined sugar I got hooked on these things. They are an absolutely delicious, feel-good treat (Pulsin is on the ethical chocolate list) which is almost guilt-free. Almost. Unfortunately they’re wrapped in plastic. So, to avoid that, I decided to make my own – and they are equally yummy, if I do say so myself 😀
I ordered my supplies from the Zero Waste Club – a wonderful new company from whom you can order all sorts of healthy staples without plastic wrapping. The following is my first attempt and it made a lot of bars. In future I’ll halve these measurements 🙂
Ingredients:
First soak the dates and the cashews in water (separately) in the fridge for a couple of hours to soften. Afterwards, drain and rinse the cashews in a colander.
I don’t have a food processor (I used to have one but it broke and I refuse to buy another one which will also break at some point and add more plastic to landfill) so I used my beloved manual juicer to process these ingredients. This is a simple, hand-crank machine made of stainless steel which I believe will last me a life time. I highly recommend it 😀 (BL-30 Manual Stainless Steel Wheat Grass and Vegetable Juicer)
2. Process the softened cashews into mush and add them to the bowl with the dates.
3. Mix the stiff mixture of dates and cashews until thoroughly combined.
4. Process the raisins into mush and mix them into the mixture.
5. Add the cocoa and the cacao nibs and mix until everything is fully combined into a lovely chocolatey mixture.
6. If you don’t want to add the oats, you’re finished so you can spread the mixture into a tin or onto a plate or container. It is delicious now but you won’t be able to pick it up with your fingers to eat it, like a shop-bought bar. You’ll need a plate and a fork coz it’s mushy. So, I added a few oats to stiffen it up. Just add a few at a time and mix them in until you’ve got the consistency you want.
7. When the mixture is the right consistency, spread it onto a lined cookie sheet (I lined it with eco-friendly grease proof paper from If You Care) Flatten it with the back of a wet spoon.
8. Then cut it into bars and chill in the fridge. Easy 😀 
Yum 😀
Story continues from yesterday:
Yay Venus! She saved the day again!
If you want to know what she did next, go to episode 4
If you want to know what she did before this, go to the Venus Aqueous page 😀
Have a great day, see you tomorrow ❤
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vegan, vegan children, vegan children’s story, vegan comic, children’s comic, animals, marine animals, veggie kids, basking sharks, jet skis, fishing, fishing nets, ghost nets, marine pollution
Story continues from yesterday
Phew! Thank goodness for that. Find out tomorrow whether Venus can save the basking shark😀
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vegan, vegan children, vegan children’s story, vegan comic, children’s comic, animals, marine animals, veggie kids, basking sharks, jet skis
Story continues from yesterday 🙂 
Oh no! Find out tomorrow how Venus and her dad cope with these idiots 😀 (or read the whole story now 😉 )
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vegan, vegan children, vegan children’s story, vegan comic, children’s comic, animals, marine animals, veggie kids, basking sharks,
Story continues from last week 😀
What’s going on? Find out tomorrow 😀 (or read the whole story now 😉 )
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vegan, vegan children, vegan children’s story, vegan comic, children’s comic, animals, marine animals, veggie kids
Watch this. Nothing could be more important.
Yesterday I heard a woman complaining at the checkout about how much she had to pay for plastic bags. She complained but she didn’t act. She didn’t make the effort to bring re-usable bags with her. She was clueless. I am daily flabbergasted at the cluelessness of so many people who blindly continue with their destructive habits in spite of the devastation they cause to the planet. Do they think it’s not their problem? Do they think the government will solve it?
This problem can only be solved by everybody.
Now we continue with episode 3 (for the story so far, click here 😀 )
What’s Dad got? Find out on Monday 😉
Have a great weekend 😀
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vegan, vegetarian, veggie kids, vegan children, vegan superhero, vegan comic, vegan children’s story,
Story continues from yesterday:
For all the Venus Aqueous stories click here 😀
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Story continues from yesterday:
Nevermind the dinghy Venus, somebody needs your help! Story continues tomorrow, but click here if you want to read it now 😀
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vegan, vegetarian, veggie kids, vegan stories, vegan comics, vegan children’s story, vegan children’s comic, vegan superhero, swimming
And so it begins! Story continues tomorrow but if you want to read it now you can find the whole of episode 2 here 😀
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children’s story, vegan children’s story, vegan comic, vegan children’s comic
Here’s Venus: Beginnings – the first four episodes!
Here are the answers to yesterday’s puzzle 😀
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vegan, nutrition, plant-based, plant food, vegetables, protein, puzzle, crossword, vegetarian, things to make and do,
Click on the puzzle for a pdf you can download and print
or ‘print screen’ and paste into Paint so you don’t have to print it 😀
The answers are here 😀
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Created at wordmint.com
vegan, nutrition, plant-based, plant food, vegetables, protein, puzzle, crossword, vegetarian, things to make and do,
Here’s a cute little children’s book by Malte Hartwieg 🙂
Change The World With Rose And Chili has been written for little children who don’t know the truth about where their food comes from, and it explains in simple terms that animals are not here for our use, they are here for their own reasons.
With adorable illustrations, Malte Hartwieg takes Rose and her best friend Chili on a journey to an imaginary world where, one by one, Rose meets individuals who are suffering because humans use them for food or clothing: a fox who has no coat, a sheep who has been robbed of her wool, a chicken bereft of eggs and a cow with no milk for her calf. At every meeting Rose is moved to help these individuals by giving them her warm clothes or finding plant-based foods to replace the animal-based ones, and the imaginary world becomes a brighter, greener, happier place.
By the end, when Rose and Chili return home, Rose has learned how easy it is to change the real world: simply eat plants instead of animals.
This book needs to be on the shelves of nurseries and pre-schools everywhere so that little ones can learn, before they get brainwashed into accepting the status quo, how simple it is to change the world.
Just lovely 😀
Author/Illustrator: Malte Hartwieg
Genre: Juvenile fiction/picture book
Recommended for reading to pre-schoolers
Published July 2018
Format: Paperback (24 pages)
ISBN-10: 1722463449
ISBN-13: 978-1722463441
Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 0.2 x 21.6 cm
Available from Amazon in the UK, Europe, USA, Canada and Australia
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vegan books, vegan children’s book, vegan children’s stories, animals, animal rights, vegetarian
We are happy to announce our new partners: Vegan Nation – the strongest cruelty-free marketplace & platform every Vegan needs to know!
You’ll soon find us, among thousands of other vegan businesses, on their upcoming app📱@vegannationofficial – #iamvegannation
Wanna join? I don’t blame you! Click here to join the fastest growing vegan ecosystem now! 😀
Check it out! 😀
From the Foreword by Neal Barnard, M.D.: The writing of this book was motivated by the observation that many parents are unclear about how best to nourish their children at different stages of development. Well-intentioned parents like you want to do the very best for the long-term health and well-being of their children. They need help knowing where to begin.
Our hope is that by assembling an expert panel of doctors and nutritionists and by providing well-researched, easy-to-read information on healthy eating during childhood, we can help you promote excellent health for your children throughout their lives.
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Boy I wish I’d had this book when my children were little, then I wouldn’t have been misled by my GP who pleaded with me not to make my baby vegan, saying that children need dairy for at least their first five years! I was very young, inexperienced and, since it was way before the internet, there was no one else to ask. It was another eleven years before we had enough information to understand that he was wrong, and our transition from vegetarianism to veganism left us feeling better than ever.
But that didn’t prevent us being misjudged by another GP when I took my youngest to the doctor when she was about 11 because she was getting recurring headaches. I’d assumed she was suffering from migraines but as soon as the GP heard we were vegan she sucked in her breath over her teeth and said with confidence
“Calcium deficiency!”
I insisted that that wasn’t it, we get enough calcium from our fruit and vegetables, but she would not be dissuaded from her conclusion and sent us away after telling us to take some multi-vitamins, without doing any tests or examination. Some months later, thanks to a good GP advising us to go the optician and see if the headaches were due to a need for glasses, it was discovered that there was haemorrhaging behind her eyes caused by a benign brain tumour.
The world and medical practitioners are so much more enlightened nowadays though aren’t they? Thanks to the internet and such widely available information shared online by vegan individuals, groups and organisations. So you’d think that no one would be in danger of getting the kind of bad advice we got back then.
I was shocked to discover a few weeks ago that that’s not true. A friend of mine took her eleven and a half month-old baby for her ‘one year review’ by a Health Visitor at a children’s centre in Brighton and was told she should be transitioning her baby off breast milk and onto cows’ milk – for the calcium!!!!!!!
Thankfully my friend knows better but lots of people, like me all those years ago, will be swayed by this shockingly bad advice. That’s why this book is brilliant. Because it comes from the Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine, written by Amy Lanou, Ph.D. who is Nutrition Director of the Physicians’ Committee (or she was when this was first published back in 2002 – oh I wish I’d had it then!) and got her doctoral degree from Cornell University, readers can rest assured that the book can be relied upon. And it’s got so much! From a healthy pregnancy to healthy breast feeding to healthy nutrition for your child for the rest of his or her life, this book tells you everything you need to know 🙂
And it even provides you with a ton of healthy delicious recipes:
I bought this one for my friend, but now I’m going to get another one for me!
Author: Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine with Amy Lanou, Ph.D.
Genre: Non-fiction, Plant-Based Nutrition
Recommended for teens and up
Format: Paperback (272 pages) and Kindle Edition
Published: February 2002
ISBN-10: 0471436216
ISBN-13: 978-0471436218
Dimensions: 15.5 x 1.9 x 22.7 cm
Available from the Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine and Amazon
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nutrition, health, vegan, vegetarian, books, non-fiction, plant-based nutrition, children, raising healthy children, healthy pregnancy, nursing mothers, healthy breastfeeding, raising vegan children, food, healthy eating, healthy recipes, healthy recipe book, vegan recipe book
For this whole story (episode 2) and all the other Megan & Flos stories, click here 🙂
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vegan, vegetarian, veggie kids, vegan children, vegan children’s stories, vegan children’s comic, vegan comics, vegan children’s book, science fiction, pollution
Story continues on Monday, but if you want to read it now click here 😀
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vegan, vegetarian, veggie kids, vegan children, vegan children’s stories, vegan children’s comic, vegan comics, vegan children’s book, science fiction
Story continues tomorrow, but if you want to read it now click here 😀
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vegan, vegetarian, veggie kids, vegan children, vegan children’s stories, vegan children’s comic, vegan comics, vegan children’s book, science fiction
Story continues tomorrow, but if you want to read it now click here 😀
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vegan, vegetarian, veggie kids, vegan children, vegan children’s stories, vegan children’s comic, vegan comics, vegan children’s book, science fiction
Story continues tomorrow, but if you want to read it now click here 😀
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vegan, vegetarian, veggie kids, vegan children, vegan children’s stories, vegan children’s comic, vegan comics, vegan children’s book,
Story continues tomorrow, but if you want to read it now click here 😀
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vegan, vegetarian, veggie kids, vegan children, vegan children’s stories, vegan children’s comic, vegan comics, vegan children’s book,
Reflecto Girl 5 and 6 – now in paperback! Woohoo!
Continuing from Friday 🙂
For the whole story, click here 🙂
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children’s story, vegan children, comic, vegan comic, humour, imagination, vegan children’s story, eccentric story
Sherman & Geynes episode 1 continues:
For the story so far click here 😀
Story continues on Monday. Have a great weekend 😀
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children’s story, vegan children, comic, vegan comic, humour, imagination, vegan children’s story, eccentric story
Sherman & Geynes episode 1 continues:
For the story so far click here 😀
Story continues tomorrow 😀
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children’s story, vegan children, comic, vegan comic, humour, imagination, vegan children’s story, eccentric story
Sherman & Geynes episode 1 continues:
For the story so far click here 😀
Story continues tomorrow 😀
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children’s story, vegan children, comic, vegan comic, humour, imagination, vegan children’s story, eccentric story
Sherman & Geynes episode 1 continues:
For the story so far click here 😀
Story continues tomorrow 😀
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children’s story, vegan children, comic, vegan comic, humour, imagination, vegan children’s story, eccentric story
😀 Sherman & Geynes episode 1 continues:
(For the story so far click here)
Story continues tomorrow 😀
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children’s story, vegan children, comic, vegan comic, humour, imagination, vegan children’s story, eccentric story
Story continues on Monday 😀
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children’s story, vegan children, comic, vegan comic, humour, imagination, vegan children’s story, eccentric story
Sherman & Geynes episode 1 continues:
Story continues tomorrow 😀
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children’s story, vegan children, comic, vegan comic, humour, imagination, vegan children’s story, eccentric story
Story continues tomorrow 😀
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children’s story, vegan children, comic, vegan comic, humour, imagination, vegan children’s story, eccentric story
Reflecto Girl: Harsh But Fair continues (For the story so far, click here 🙂 )
Phew! That’s a relief 🙂 New story starts tomorrow 😀
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vegan, vegetarian, animal rights, children’s story, comics, children’s comics, vegan comics, vegan children’s story, animals, badgers, cows
Reflecto Girl: Harsh But Fair continues (For the story so far, click here 🙂 )
Story concludes on tomorrow 🙂
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vegan, vegetarian, animal rights, children’s story, comics, children’s comics, vegan comics, vegan children’s story, animals, badgers, cows
Reflecto Girl: Harsh But Fair continues (For the story so far, click here 🙂 )
Story continues on Monday. Have a great weekend 🙂
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vegan, vegetarian, animal rights, children’s story, comics, children’s comics, vegan comics, vegan children’s story, animals, badgers, cows
Reflecto Girl: Harsh But Fair continues (For the story so far, click here 🙂 )
Story continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan, vegetarian, animal rights, children’s story, comics, children’s comics, vegan comics, vegan children’s story, animals, badgers, cows
Reflecto Girl: Harsh But Fair continues (For the story so far, click here 🙂 )
Story continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan, vegetarian, animal rights, children’s story, comics, children’s comics, vegan comics, vegan children’s story, animals, badgers, cows
For earlier episodes of Reflecto Girl, click here 🙂
Story continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan, vegetarian, animal rights, children’s story, comics, children’s comics, vegan comics, vegan children’s story, animals, badgers, cows
For earlier episodes of Reflecto Girl, click here 🙂
Story continues tomorrow 🙂
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vegan, vegetarian, animal rights, children’s story, comics, children’s comics, vegan comics, vegan children’s story, animals, badgers, cows
For earlier episodes of Reflecto Girl, click here 🙂
Story continues on Monday.
Have a great weekend 😀
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vegan, vegetarian, animal rights, children’s story, comics, children’s comics, vegan comics, vegan children’s story, animals, badgers, cows
For earlier episodes of Reflecto Girl, click here 🙂
Story continues tomorrow
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vegan, vegetarian, animal rights, children’s story, comics, children’s comics, vegan comics, vegan children’s story, animals, badgers, cows
We love Louis Sachar (whose name rhymes with cracker – in case you were wondering) and after reading Fuzzy Mud I decided that it qualified as a vegan book for children 🙂 It doesn’t use the v-word but the main protagonist seems to be a plant-eater (there is no mention of any meat/fish/egg or dairy in her diet) and the grippingly entertaining story is wrapped around a vitally important environmental message. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to discover that Louis Sachar was veg*n but I have no idea whether he actually is. Anyway, this book qualifies so I wanted to share it with you 🙂
The story is about Tamaya who has a scholarship to a posh school and walks there every day with Marshall who is a year older than her (they’re pre-teens I think). They never go through the woods because there are creepy rumours about a strange guy who lives there. And they’ve been told not to. Meanwhile, on the other side of the woods a laboratory is developing a new “green” fuel, made of artificially engineered living micro-organisms, aka ‘fuzzy mud’. Well, one day, after being challenged to a fight by the school bully, Marshall decides, for his own safety, to go home via the woods. Tamaya doesn’t want to go that way but she’s not supposed to walk home alone so she follows him. And that’s when it gets really scary!
I’m not going to tell you anymore (and don’t spoil it for yourself by reading the Amazon blurb because it gives too much away) because you should get the book and enjoy the whole thing from the beginning 🙂
Author: Louis Sachar
Genre: Juvenile fiction/thriller
Recommended for readers aged 8 and up
Format: Paperback (256 pages) and Kindle Edition and Audio Download
Published: August 2016
ISBN-10: 1408864754
ISBN-13: 978-1408864753
Dimensions: 19.7 x 1.3 x 13.1cm
Available from Amazon and undoubtedly other bookshops and libraries 🙂
For earlier episodes of Reflecto Girl, click here 🙂
Use the zoom in your browser to enlarge for easier reading 🙂
Reflecto Girl: Sidekick continues …
vegan, vegetarian, animal rights, children’s story, comics, children’s comics, vegan comics, vegan children’s story, moles, animals,
For earlier episodes of Reflecto Girl, click here 🙂
Use the zoom in your browser to enlarge for easier reading 🙂
Reflecto Girl: Sidekick continues …
Story concludes tomorrow 🙂
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vegan, vegetarian, animal rights, children’s story, comics, children’s comics, vegan comics, vegan children’s story, moles, animals,
For earlier episodes of Reflecto Girl, click here 🙂
Use the zoom in your browser to enlarge for easier reading 🙂
Reflecto Girl: Sidekick continues …
Story continues on Monday. Have a great weekend 😀
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vegan, vegetarian, animal rights, children’s story, comics, children’s comics, vegan comics, vegan children’s story, moles, animals,
For earlier episodes of Reflecto Girl, click here 🙂
Use the zoom in your browser to enlarge for easier reading 🙂
Reflecto Girl: Sidekick continues …
Story continues tomorrow 🙂
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Violet's Vegan Comics 