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Synopsis

The White Giraffe by Lauren St John

When she is eleven years old, Martine is orphaned and sent to live with her grandmother on a game reserve in South Africa. Her grandmother seems strangely unwelcoming and Martine has a difficult time settling in at her new school, where she is conspicuously an outsider. But she has an ally in Tendai - one of the keepers on the reserve, from whom she learns the lore and survival techniques of the bush, and in Grace - who instantly senses there is something special about Martine.;There are secrets about Sawubona (the reserve) just waiting to be revealed, and rumours too about a fabled white giraffe - a trophy for hunters everywhere. One night Martine, lonely and feeling slightly rebellious too, looks out of her window and see a young albino giraffe - silver, tinged with cinnamon in the moonlight. This is the beginning of her mysterious and magical adventures - her discovery of her gift of healing and a secret valley that she travels to with the giraffe, where she'll find clues about her past and future. Above all it's is a heart-warming story, full of charm and atmosphere, and Martine's sheer delight in her giraffe friend and the fantastic landscape which is theirs to explore.

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Reviews

'St John's descriptions of southern Africa provide a sumptuous backdrop... top-drawer adventure storytelling, with an added helping of fantasy thrown in. It all makes for a genuinely gripping tale that will warm even the coldest of hearts.'
Joe Melia, Waterstone
's Bristol Galleries WATERSTONE'S BOOKS QUARTERLY 'enthralling... we may not all have a white giraffe to make life easier, but his book remainds us that even the most miserable situation can get better.'
John Millen SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

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About The Author

Lauren St John was born in Gatooma, Rhodesia, now Kadoma, Zimbabwe. Aged 11 she and her family moved to Rainbow's End farm in Gadzema, which later became the subject of her memoir. After studying journalism, she relocated to England, where she was golf correspondent to The Sunday Times. She is the author of several books on sports and music, as well as the award-winning children's series The White Giraffe, Dolphin Song, The Last Leopard and The Elephant's Tale.  Her latest book, One Dollar Horse, is published in March 2012.

Lauren St John has a fascinating life story and her captivating and haunting memoir about her childhood spent in rural Africa has been published.  Rainbow's End captures the overwhelming beauty and extraordinary danger of life in the African bush and it's this life story that is the inspiration for many of her animal stories for children.  This memoir is definitely not for children to read but we mention it here as parents of children reading Lauren's children's books may well like to read about this awe-inspiring author.

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