Warrior Boy by Viriginia Clay

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 274

Publisher: Chicken House Books 

Released: 6th of September 2018

London schoolboy Ben is heading for Kenya to meet his Maasai family. But how is an outsider like him going to fit in?

When he meets his cousin Kip, he discovers they share more than he thought – if only Ben can keep up . . .

Together, the boys must survive the African savannah: hunt for food, defend elephants from poachers – and even face the king of the beasts. Does Ben have what it takes to be a twenty-first-century warrior?

Trigger Warning: Poaching, animal death (for food and ivory)

What I Have to Say 

This was a lovely story, but also very, very moving. There's action, adventure, Maasai culture, coming-of-age and family. It has everything that a kid can want in a book really. Ben is an excellent character who is so easy to connect and empathise with and Kip is funny, brave and the best friend/ cousin a boy could have. Together they form a true brotherhood in the African wilds. 

The elephant poaching is a very big part of the book. Ben's mum is on a team of documentary makers who are working to make a video revealing the horrors of the ivory industry and so they are right in the heart of the issue. There's a part with a baby elephant and it's mother that could make the hardest hearts weep! It's moving, important and eye-opening and will make anyone reading want to go to Africa and fight for the elephants tooth, nail and spear (though maybe we should send donations to those more capable of fighting for them rather than hop straight on a plane. Especially if the person reading is ten). 

The Maasai culture was shown beautifully, with Ben working hard to become a warrior and live up to his father's memory. The fact that he has a crippling phobia of blood is just one of the obstacle in his way as he faces challenge after challenge. And there are useful tips in there for anyone who also finds they faint at the sight of blood. 

I loved reading about Ben's journey and I really hope that you do too. 

 My thanks go to Chicken House for providing me with this copy for review. 

Warrior Boy Blog Tour: How Much Do You Care?

I was lucky enough to be invited to be part of the blog tour for Warrior Boy, an beautiful, emotional new Middle Grade (9+) from Virginia Clay about race, heritage and the horrors of elephant poaching. So today I'm delighted to share with you a lovely think piece written by the author herself. 

Everybody loves elephants, don’t they? Phenomenally intelligent, deeply loving, intuitive, emotional and violently threatened.

But what if you are an off-the-grid Kenyan subsistence farmer, with only two small fields of crops with which to feed your family, and these formidable beasts come silently in the night and destroy everything? They flatten your crops and thrust their marauding trunks into your water tank, draining it of all you collected last rainy season. You now have nothing to feed your family and no water for four whole months. Would you love elephants then?

Human beings are built to feel empathy but knowing too much can leave us confused as to how to respond. Every day the news brings atrocities into our living rooms on a scale as yet unprecedented in human history. Compassion fatigue is a phenomenon no longer reserved for those in caring professions.

In my children’s book, Warrior Boy, which is set in Kenya, my hero Ben comes face to face with the horrors of poaching. He suddenly understands his mother’s desire to protect elephants and vows to do what he can to help her.

But it may interest you to know, whilst I am aware that a child reading this story somewhere in the Shetland Islands will undoubtedly empathise with Ben’s response, I don’t think they have to start saving up their pocket money to do the same.

In Kenya, young people are changing the face of conservation through the movement #mabingwa (‘The Champions’). They are discovering the complexities of human and wildlife interaction, and making informed, caring decisions to preserve the future of both. They are no longer being told what to think by Westerners, but neither are they focusing their attention on poverty in Sri Lanka.

There may be no turning back from our global connectedness now, but as Rob Bell, the author of Love Wins puts it, “we can only care about a few things.” So, is it not wise to make your few things those which you know and understand? Of course, elephants are important, but so is the endangered house sparrow. And what about the old folk in your local community, crippled by loneliness? You may not feel like you have a sphere of influence, but you do – we all do. Choosing to eat less meat and not buy single-use plastic items are decisions that don’t feel particularly thrusting but have a powerful knock-on effect in time.

Richard Powers, the author of The Overstory, values the quiet power of ‘looking at the world differently’ as the first step on the road to a common consciousness. I like this too and it’s certainly the change that Ben experiences in Warrior Boy. I do hope that my book inspires young people to make changes for the better, but I would be overjoyed just to know it helped them look at the world a little differently too.

WARRIOR BOY by Virginia Clay out now in paperback (£6.99, Chicken House)

Connect with Virginia on twitter @VClayAuthor and find out more at 

www.chickenhousebooks.com

Thanks so much to Chicken House for inviting me onto their blog tour. For more information about the book, check out my review and for more stops on the tour, check out the image below!