Book Info

Format

Paperback
80 pages

Author

Stephen Davies
More books by Stephen Davies

Author's Website

www.voiceinthedesert.org.uk/

Publisher

Andersen Press Ltd

Suitable for Ages

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Publication date

6th April 2006

ISBN

9781842705513

Sophie And The Albino Camel

Stephen Davies

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The Lovereading comment:

Winner of the Glen Dimplex Children's Book award 2006. Sophie is a wonderfully adventurous young girl who now lives with her father in a town in the Sahara desert.  Her love of camels and a chance meeting with a young boy brings her into all manner of danger, fear and excitement all in one.  Stephen Davies has a real talent for inspiring young children through the mixing of fact and fiction in his writing.  Kids will be bubbling over with excitement, for before they even realise it they'll know more about life in the Sahara having read the book and had a great deal of fun along the way with both Sophie, Gidaado and the albino camel.  Further adventures with Sophie will be published in March 2007, entitled Sophie and the Locust Curse. Rest-assured we will be promoting that one too as we really rate this author.

Synopsis

Sophie lives in Gorom-Gorom, with her carnivorous-plant obsessed dad. Despite living there for 2 years, she finds it difficult to make friends. So when she meets Gidaado, a young griot, she agrees to join him and his camel, on a journey to his village. It is not until they have set off, that she begins to realise, how dangerous the desert was.

About The Author

Stephen Davies is a missionary who lives amongst Fulani herders in West Africa, one of the poorest regions of the world. He speaks Fulfulde, eats millet, accompanies cattle-drives and preaches the gospel in culturally relevant ways and lives a life just like those others who live there.  He writes for the Guardian Weekly (letters from Bukina Faso) and occasionally for the Sunday Times.

VOICE IN THE DESERT - A Day in the Life of Stephen Davies:

I live in Djibo, a small town on the edge of the Sahara desert. Most of the year it is simply too hot to sleep inside the house, so my wife Charlie hangs a mosquito net from a tree in our back yard. We wake up to the usual early-morning soundtrack of donkeys, cockerels and cows. Lie-ins are rare because we have animals of our own to feed: three French hens, two black and white kittens and a hungry stallion called Silalé. Greeting is important in African societies, so I first go round saying hello to our neighbours: Jam waali (Did you pass the night in peace?), Noy koreeji maa (How is your family?), we sing the long greeting sequence back and forth.  The answer to these questions is invariably Jam tan (Peace only). When they answer ‘Jam tan’, my neighbours are putting a brave face on things: in reality this region is one of the poorest in the world.
My work here as a missionary includes humanitarian relief: grain handouts, yes, but also working with individuals to find creative ways out of poverty. A donkey and cart for Bukari, a sheep for Mariama, school fees for Adama – the slow, intangible work of development.

A missionary is also a storyteller, and I love sharing stories with people – ancient stories which still have incredible power to inspire and transform the human heart.
In the afternoon, I write. I bash away on my laptop with sweat dripping off my elbows. I’m so grateful to my friends and neighbours here for sharing their lives with me – it’s their truth which inspires my fiction.

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