I’m not particularly brave, so I was pretty fascinated by Keena’s life in Africa, complete with experiences with black mambas, spiders the size of dinner plates, the danger of navigating channels in the Okavango delta in a boat where crocodiles and hippos lurk.

She wasn’t interested in what other children were interested in and they didn’t understand the things that interested her. The students there didn’t understand her previous life and she didn’t fit in – she spent most of her time living wild and her clothes, hair and everything else was all wrong. When Keena got older, her parents decided that proper schooling needed to be a part of her life and also they had to both fulfil teaching engagements with their university employer so Keena started school at a Philadelphia private school. The temperatures were often incredibly oppressive – there was a heatwave that pushed it to 120 and there was almost no way to seek relief. She was homeschooled or taught herself and also learned a lot about living in a remote location with little in the way of resources and zero luxury. Her parents were prominent primatologists who spent large portions of their careers at overseas postings researching baboons and although Keena’s mother returned to the US for her birth, they took Keena back to Africa at quite a young age and she spent a huge portion of her childhood there, firstly in Kenya and then later in Botswana.

Keena Roberts spent her life divided between two locations. So when I saw this on NetGalley I jumped on it because it sounded really interesting. I love books set anywhere on the continent of Africa, particularly those that revolve around the wildlife sanctuaries, issues with poaching etc.

Wild life by keena roberts