Safari: I Won’t Cry Mumma (Janet Seath with Frank Scaysbrook, Bantam, $29.95 tpb, ISBN 1863254447, December) ***

Can you imagine having nothing to eat but sand? Life in Gosford, on the NSW central coast, is a far cry from the tragedies encountered in the drought- and famine-afflicted villages of Kenya—a place where inadequate medical facilities and a lack of electricity mean that burns accidents and death by snakebite pose a daily threat. Many readers will be familiar with the story of Safari Kamanzi, the three-year old who survived a life-threatening accident resulting in disabling, disfiguring burns. At age six-and-a-half he came to Australia to undergo the year of reconstructive surgery that would change his life and see him return to his village and family. Janet Seath and Frank Scaysbrook took the child into their home in central NSW and saw him through 14 complex, traumatic operations which were chronicled on the reality TV show ‘RPA’. This is a story of great courage, compassion, tolerance, love and resilience—the story of an extraordinary medical team, of family, friends and communities reaching out to a child and people in need. This book’s merit does not lie in great writing or style but in the vital messages it brings and the depiction of Safari’s heroic optimism and endurance.Paula Grunseit is a writer and review who works at SBS

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2004, Thorpe-Bowker