The Bushbabies

by William Stevenson, Victor G. Ambrus (Illustrator)

13-year-old Jackie and an elderly African travel into the hazardous African bush to return Jackie's pet tarsier (bushbaby) to the forest. A story of friendship between two people of different ages and races and a graphic picture of the African bush.

Genres: Fiction

Hardcover

First published September 1, 1965

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

William Stevenson was a British-born Canadian author and journalist. His 1976 book "A Man Called Intrepid" was about William Stephenson (no relation) and was a best-seller. It was made into a 1979 mini-series starring David Niven and Stevenson followed it up with a 1983 book titled "Intrepid's Last Case."

Stevenson set a record with another 1976 book, "90 Minutes at Entebbe." The book was about Operation Entebbe, an operation where Israeli commandos secretly landed at night at Entebbe Airport in Uganda and succeeded in rescuing the passengers of an airliner hi-jacked by Palestinian militants, while incurring very few casualties. The remarkable record in that pre-internet age is that Stevenson's "instant book" was written, edited, printed and available for sale within weeks of the event it described.

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful description! I feel like I learned something about the culture and the landscape of Kenya. The story is about a little girl, a warrior, and a marsupial called a bushbaby, and their trek across Kenya. However, the title is symbolic. She's also a babe in the bush in this journey, and the warrior is himself a child of the wilds of nature. This was turned into a movie, and I can see why!
Worth the read, even if you don't agree with all the philosophy in it. It's good to understand how other viewpoints think and view the world.

[Riley · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a children's book, this hits on a lot of grown-up themes. Racism, industrialization, friendship, determination, and loving a place as you love yourself are all covered in this adventure. I'd love to see Africa one day, just to see if it lives up to the descriptions in this book. I'd also love to get a bushbaby, but that's another story :)

[BethAnn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this. It was a unique adventure story. And, of course the parallels between raising a bushbaby and owning/rescuing sugar gliders (which I do) made it so much easier to relate to and ADORE.

[Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my childhood all-time favorites. Re-read multiple times. The movie was good, too. Leaving Africa, a pet bushbaby the girl suddenly decides to return to the wild, her African companion, assumptions she's been kidnapped. Great adventure.

[Twyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read, awesome story. Kids back then were sure portrayed a fuck of a lot smarter than nowadays.

[Whitley Cadarette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book at a library book sale randomly, and it has been one of the most joyous literary finds I have experienced. Originally, I only picked it up for the cover, which is not the one pictured here on Goodreads.

I read this book out loud to my daughter, and we both fell in love with the story. Not only did the plot keep us on our toes, we appreciated the language used to describe each moment as we were drawn along the journey of Jackie, Tembo, and Kamau across the African Badlands. We felt like we could envision Kenya in all its beauty and wildness.

My daughter is quite young, but this story deftly handled the complexity of relationships, growing up, colonialism, racism, and the power of friendship to cross cultural and age boundaries. While I know she did not understand all that was discussed, she teared up at the end as did I.

I would like to mention here that the wildlife scenes are graphic, much like watching an animal documentary. It is not for those looking for a read that glosses over the desperate survival of animals in the wild.

The story itself can be described as wholesome, rich, poignant, and yet, realistic. If you find a copy of this book, I encourage you to read it. It will be in my top ten favorite books for a long while.

[Rhonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as a child and really enjoyed it.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read it as an adult. Our family lived in Kenya for several years. It felt authentic. The description of the area around Vipingo were vividly correct.