Listening for Lions
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
A critically acclaimed historical novel “that roars” (Kliatt), from the author of the National Book Award-winning novel Homeless Bird.
Africa is the only home Rachel Sheridan has ever known. But when her missionary parents are struck with influenza, she is left vulnerable to her family’s malicious neighbors. Surrounded by greed and lies, Rachel is entangled in a criminal scheme and sent to England, where she's forced into a life of deception.
Like the lion, she must be patient and strong, awaiting the moment when she can take control of her own fate—and find her way home again at last.
Named one of New York Public Library's One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing, this tale of a strong young heroine “in the tradition of Frances Hodgson Burnett” (School Library Journal), by award-winning master of historical fiction Gloria Whelan, is a perfect read for schools and classrooms, as well as for fans of A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Whelan (Homeless Bird) places her courageous and thoughtful narrator in Africa in 1919, just after the Great War and manages to place a new twist on familiar themes. "It didn't occur to me at that moment that I, too, might become an orphan. I think I believed that because Father was a doctor, he would let no illness come to our family." When 13 year-old Rachel Sheridan loses her British missionary parents, unscrupulous neighbors exploit her resemblance to their deceased daughter, Valerie, and send her to England to try to collect the inheritance from Valerie's ailing grandfather. What sets this familiar tale apart is Rachel's love of the African land, animals and Masai people, and the details that make Whelan's narrative come alive. The author ensures that Rachel's lack of choices and her sensitive nature make her complicity wholly believable. Once in England, the girl's evolving relationship with the invalid grandfather heightens her sense of guilt about her assumed identity. However, when the villains are exposed, much of the novel's tension dissipates and the balance of the book reads somewhat like an extended epilogue. Still, Whelan's formidable and appealing heroine will keep readers rooting for her dream of a home with the lions of Africa. Ages 10-up.
