Born Free
Born Free is a non-fiction book about a couple who come from England to live and study wildlife in Africa. George, the husband of Joy Adamson, is a hunter who kills a female lion out of defense. He soon realized that the lion he killed was the mother of 3 cubs. The couple then brings the cubs home and raises them. When they become older, and too large to take care of, the two largest cubs are sent to a zoo, while the smallest lion, named Elsa, stays under the care of Joy and George. After Elsa starts to cause trouble within their village, Joy is told to either release her to the wild, or bring her to a zoo. Since Joy refused to put Elsa in a zoo, she tries to teach her how to live in the wild again. After releasing her into a nature reserve and returning to their home in England, George and Joy come back and visit Africa after one year to find that Elsa still recognizes them and is living a healthy life.
I think this book is very well written and would be a good book to share with students in a classroom. I like the point of view of this story, as it is told from the perspective of Joy who is actually taking care of the lions. This adds a sense of believability to the story and it provides a perspective that truly shows how she felt during the conflicts when taking of Elsa. For example, Joy states “when I arrived alone, she [Elsa] gave me a great welcome, but it was heartbreaking to see her searching everywhere for her sisters” (Adamson, p. 36). The first person tone of this story makes the reader feel what the narrator feels. Also, I like the way that this book explained the setting. It added depth to the story and described it in a way that made the reader feel as if they could picture living in Africa and seeing the wildlife themselves. Lastly, I think that the conflict of this book created good tension and as a reader, I wanted to keep reading the book. The conflict that Joy faced with whether or not to put Elsa in a zoo, made the story very suspenseful. As a reader, I felt very engaged and did not want to put the book down. I think this would be a good book to share in a 5th grade classroom because it is a larger book, it has complex situations, but it is understandable and a book that would provide an educational and new perspective on African wildlife issues. |