Sieta is a young South African girl who has been brought by Aunty to a new home in a bustling township that is very different from the more rural place she had lived with her parents before they died of AIDS. The grieving girl’s adjustment is eased when she meets an orphan elephant on a school trip to a nearby park and they become friends. Littlewood’s rich watercolor and gouache paintings add warmth and cheer to the somber narrative about the plight of so many children orphaned by Africa’s AIDS epidemic. bal

Originally published by Frances Lincoln Great Britain, in 2006.