Product Description
The only difference between fear and courage is hope. This is a fresh and powerful story about one girl's strength of character and her journey of hope. Mulumbe's village is plagued by marauders, and then an elephant eats the last of her family's crop. She determines to save her family, and embarks on an adventure fraught with danger: travelling to the famed City of Gold to be reunited with her brother, Tom, and save her family by earning some money. Grandmother tells her many riddles and it is these life lessons that carry her through the obstacles and dangers she encounters: 'Mulumbe, the river of our ancestors flows most strongly through you. Girl, remember your riddle, real strength is found in those who might be thought to be weak.' This story is in part the Africa we know from TV: famine, unrest and refugee camps. But, it also encapsulates the strength of family and hope, and wonderfully portrays the landscape and animals: elephants, hyenas, hares, Mumbo snakes and honey birds.
About the Author
Jonathan and Shirley Tulloch were inspired to write I Am a Cloud, I Can Blow Anywhere because of their experiences living in Africa. Shirley lived among the Tonga people in Zimbabwe for two years with no electricity and no tar roads. Both Jonathan and Shirley lived in Johannesburg for one year where Jonathan was a writer in residence in a local township. Some of the book is based on real events. Jonathan is the Royal Literary Fellow at Teeside University. He has had several novels published for adults: The Season Ticket, The Bonny Lad, The Lottery and Give Us This Day. He is the recipient of the Betty Trask Prize 2000 and the J.B. Priestley Award in 2004, and was on the TLS list of 20 best young writers. Shirley has written a picture book, Who Made Me? published by Lion. The couple live in North Yorkshire with their young son.
