A review by ailsareads
The Girl Who Saw Lions by Berlie Doherty

3.0

I wasn’t sure how I felt about this book at first - I thought it offered quite a reductive portrait of Tanzania, but further into the book it expanded this and showed the author really loved the country. My one real criticism is that Rosa is supposed to be thirteen, yet she has the emotional maturity of an eight year old. It was a little bit jarring, as were the constant changes in narrator mid-chapter. I did get sucked into it at the end though, and really grew to love Abela. I would recommend this book for children learning about Tanzania or immigration - it would stimulate some great classroom discussion about other countries, and how it would feel for a child moving to a new country. I just wish that Rosa was as young as she sounds!

(I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review)