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Ellen Banda-Aaku

The Elephant Girl

  • The Elephant Girl

  • Jama is a clever and sensitive young Maasai girl who likes elephants better than people.

    She decides to escape the classroom gossip about the new boy, Leku, by going to the watering hole outside her village. There, she befriends a baby elephant that she names Mbegu.

    When Mbegu's mother, frightened by poachers, stampedes, Jama and Mbegu are blamed for two deaths - one elephant and one human. Now Leku, whose mysterious and imposing father is the head ranger at the conservancy, may be their only lifeline.

    A beautiful, heart-pounding story of a girl, an elephant, and their life-changing friendship.

RELEASED 04/08/2022

Ellen Banda-Aaku is a UK-born Zambian writer who writes mainly for children. She has won several literary awards, including the Macmillan Writer's Prize for Africa, the Penguin Prize for African Writing for her novel Patchwork, and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Ellen's work- in books, radio dramas, and an award-winning documentary film- focuses on social issues impacting girls and women. Ellen has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. She has lived and worked in Zambia, South Africa, Ghana, and the UK, and now lives with her children in Zambia and the UK.

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