Name: Listening for lions
ISBN: 9780060581763

Gloria Whelan

Left an orphan after the influenza epidemic in British East Africa in 1918, thirteen-year-old Rachel is tricked into assuming a deceased neighbor's identity to travel to England, where her only dream is to return to Africa and rebuild her parents' mission hospital.

Listening for lions

MJ Laird

"Thirteen-year-old Rachel Sheridan is left an orphan after influenza takes the lives of her missionary parents in British East Africa in 1919. When cruel neighbors take her in, Rachel suspects their intentions may not be honest. Soon, Rachel becomes entangled in a shocking and nefarious plot that takes her away from her beloved east Africa on a lonely and treacherous journey across the ocean. Surrounded by greed and lies, Rachel must rely on her irrepressible spirit and extraordinary wit to weather her incredible adventure. And somewhere along the way, between deception and hope, the truth sets Rachel free and Africa calls her home."

This story is broken up into three parts. The first two reminded me so much of A Little Princess. They also reminded my of a Shirley Temple film. Not any particular one. Just a Shirley Temple film. You have the orphaned girl, the wicked person/people trying to use her for their own benefit, and the sweet elderly companion. If she had befriended and younger adult and set them up with someone else (preferably someone related to either the elderly companion or the wicked people) it would have been complete!*

However, even with without the adorable matchmaking scheme, this book was great! I really enjoyed it. It was fast-paced but at the same it felt very relaxed and comfortable. It was extremely easy to read while at the same time it wasn't watered down for kids. The writing was excellent.

The third and final part of the story was a sort of coming of age story that dealt with the difficulties women faced in that time. When Rachel goes to university to train as a doctor, there is much doubt off her abilities and she has to soldier through it and do the right thing. While that was a very present issue, it wasn't there to push feminist viewpoints and agendas. It was simply something that happened in history and I felt it was portrayed quite nicely. I really feel that the whole book was written very well. Nothing felt slow or forced. Nothing was unbelievable, for me at least. Nothing left me feeling unsatisfied. It was a actually a fairly short book but it didn't really feel like I just raced through it. 

I read a book recently that was an alright sort of story and written pretty well but it just rushed past me and when I was finished I just went on with life as though I had never read it. I don't like that feeling after I finish a book. I never mind if a book is short as long as I still get the right feeling when I'm finished with it. For me, the right feeling is when you put down the book and you just feel so full of emotions but at the same time you feel empty because the ending of the book was like cutting off a bit of something. When I read a good book, that book is like a whole new life and when it's over it's like that life has ended. The really good ones can be read again and again and you always love it but you still don't have quite the same feeling you did the first time. If you read a book and just immediately go back to your real life then it couldn't have been all that good. If it's that easy to go back then you must not have really left. I don't know about everyone else but I don't like books like that very well. But 'Listening For Lions' gave me the right feeling at the end.

So to cut it short, I loved the journey this book gave me and I definitely recommend it.

*I know not every Shirley Temple film follows that formula but it seems pretty common to me.

Listening for lions

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