Mission House Rhino
- Publisher
- Domnizelles Publications Inc.
- Initial publish date
- Oct 2015
- Category
-
Book
- ISBN
- 9781927815243
- Publish Date
- Oct 2015
- List Price
- $14.50
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Where to buy it
Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age: 13 to 18
- Grade: 8 to 12
Description
Ben is uprooted from his North-American home by his mother, who has taken a six month contract in Africa with the Teachers Beyond Borders organization. He soon experiences a cultural shock when a baby rhino is left orphaned after poachers kill its mother and he is left to care for it with the guidance of his new friend Anisa.
About the authors
JULIANNA KOZMA's debut novel, Mosquitoes of Summer, was the 2009 winner of Book Idol. Julianna worked as a financial journalist before becoming a teacher. She divides her time between the Laurentians in Quebec and Prince Edward Island with her husband, their two children, and pet parrot, Mr. Bean.
Excerpt: Mission House Rhino (by (author) Julianna Kozma; edited by Genevieve Rossignol & Ellen Green)
Benjamin Stokes was melting, or at least that’s what it felt like as he found himself standing under the dying African sun.
He had a pounding headache that throbbed with each blink and his stomach felt like it was being punched from the inside out. He swallowed hard to quell the nausea, but a small stream of hot sour acid spurted into his mouth. Spit! “Gross!” he said, warily eying the glob of vomit as it soaked into the dusty earth. Massaging his temples did nothing. The glaring sun, as well as the depressing scene in front of him only brought him more pain. He stared out ahead and sighed. Brown. That’s all he saw. A monochromatic world of boring brown! Just what any fifteen-year-old kid wants.
Ben looked down at his wrinkled beige shorts, and got even more depressed when he saw his skinny white legs poking out. He slapped at a mosquito that had landed on the back of his neck. He was sure he would develop malaria now. Even though he got all doped up with vaccines and pills before he even set foot on any plane, he was sure that Kenyan mosquitoes were lethal. After he had found out about the impending trip to Africa, Ben had busied himself with research about his future destination. He considered it a matter of survival. Armed with knowledge, he might actually have a chance of coming back alive. The internet was his friend, at first. It was filled with info that he found fascinating and useful. But after a couple of hours of surfing the net, Ben was sweating. He found sites warning the innocent traveller about insects, huge ones and poisonous too, and deadly snakes, man-eating lions, and raging rhinos. And here he was, bitten by an insect not two minutes of standing outside his new home. Unbelievable! Ben shook his head and then yelped as his headache said hello again.
He just didn’t understand how the move had happened so quickly. To think that just a few days ago, he had been comfortably nestled in his bed, conquering alien worlds on his X-Box or Play Station. Now he was in another continent, a place as alien to him as the Sahara desert would be to a polar bear.
