Pat Schwartz
LAPALEBOMBO: An African Paradise by Gill Bosonetto (Puffin, R59,99)
THE concept is great. All the sentiments are in the right place. Ulla Blake’s illustrations are charming. What a pity the author feels the need to anthropomorphise her animal characters in a particularly twee way! Imagine, if you will, a giraffe called Camilla, a baby duiker called Lilliput, a nyala called Angus and these are members of what Gill Bosonetto generically terms “the Wild Ones”, the untamed inhabitants of the “vast plains … the shining waters … the empty skies”.
Although Bosonetto’s LapaLebombo is a “fantasy place”, the part of the country in which she has set it is very real indeed Maputaland in northern KwaZulu-Natal an area which requires careful conservation-oriented management if it is to survive and with it, the wild things which inhabit it.
For the young readers who will visit this fantasy place, there is plenty to learn about the habits of these creatures of the wild and the threats posed by human interference. Each chapter deals with a separate set of animal characters and characteristics, the problem is that though the animals might act like animals, the author has vested them with the ability to think human thoughts and speak human words in ways which simply didn’t work for this reviewer at all.
Perhaps it is not a problem when you are pre- teen (at whom I assume this book is addressed). But it is a nagging irritation when you are an adult.
For all that, this is an attractive offering. The stories are varied and well written, the narrative should certainly carry the young readers along with it, and the theme the need to save our threatened wilderness areas weaves its way through the tales in a way which cannot but impress itself on young minds.
A glossary giving thumbnail descriptions of the creatures mentioned in the book, their characteristics and their habits, is a useful addition for youthful environmentalists who want to add some fact to the fantasy.
It all ends happily-ever-after with the conservationists moving in, the fences coming down and the animals declaring their faith in the ability of the human animals to preserve them.
“‘We will live in harmony at LapaLebombo, we will survive,’ they chorused. And, with a collective kick of their heels or swish of their tails, they split up to spread the good news to all the animals” … !