[This is a review I wrote in 2008]

**Heartwarming - Magical - A lovely story.**

What a wonderful story. For ages approx. 8+ but I thoroughly enjoyed it as an adult too!

This is the story of Martine. She's 11 years old when her parents are killed and she's sent to live in Africa with her only living relative, her grandmother. Her grandmother doesn't seem to be all that pleased to see her, but Martine soon finds the delights of living at Sawubona, a game reserve, compensate for her grandmother's strangeness. All the same, Martine wonders what makes her grandmother act so strangely... what is she hiding from Martine? Martine not only has the difficulty of being without her parents in a foreign country, but the challenge of starting at a new school too. Can she befriend the quiet boy, Ben, who sits all alone at break time and doesn't ever speak? Back in the wilderness, is there such a creature as the 'white giraffe' or is it just a mythical African story?

This is a lovely, magical story, full of the warmth, mysticism and ruggedness of rural Africa. Really well-written, and with simple yet effective black and white illustrations to help bring the pages alive. I can highly recommend it. ( )

Too sad to start

This is my next book club book - it is fantastic!!!!! I hear it's being made into a movie and I can't wait. ( )

My grand-daughter [9] and I love the Lauren St John books, and I particularly love reading them aloud to her. This is book 1 of the Animal Healer series, but not the first one we read together. This fills in the back story and like its successor deals with serious issues on a reasonable level for its audience. She is a really good writer by any standard! ( )

This rating is a tie breaker between me and my nine year old test reader. I liked the book. Martine's parents die in a fire, and Martine is shipped off to Africa to live with her grandmother on a wildlife preserve. There, she discovers that she has mystical powers to communicate with animals and nature and helps save an endangered animal. It was well-written and lively. My fellow reader, who is Martine's age, felt the peer bullying was too dark for her taste,and interestingly, as she has spent time in Africa, she felt the book presented the African bush as too threatening and "scary" when she felt it is not. so I would recommend the book, but evaluate the reader's taste before recommending it for younger readers. ( )