Gill Lewis,
Gorilla Dawn
Oxford University Press, 2015
ISBN 9780192739179
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For as long as she can remember Gill Lewis has been fascinated with animals. She grew up in an ordinary house, with an extraordinary garden. It was there that she discovered slow worms and newts, and butterflies and beetles. She even had a hospital for small animals and insects in her back garden! When she grew up Gill become a vet and her work took her from the wilds of Africa to the frozen lands of the Arctic.
She rediscovered children’s books by reading to her own children, and couldn’t help dreaming up her own stories too. She went back to university to study Writing for Young People, where she learned how to craft her stories.
Gill lives in Somerset with her family and a collection of pets including dogs, chickens and a rescued Shetland pony.
Gorilla Dawn tells the story of Imara, a young girl abducted from her village home, and Bobo, the son of a wildlife ranger, who are imprisoned by a group of rebel soldiers deep in the heart of the African jungle. When the rebels capture a baby gorilla, intending to sell him into captivity, the children vow to return him to his family in the wild before it’s too late. The consequences of getting caught are too terrible to think about, but the children are brave and determined. Will the bond between the gorilla and the children finally give them the courage they need to escape the rebels and can they ever find true safety?
Gill’s first book, Sky Hawk, won the Leeds Book Awards 9-11 category in 2012.
You can usually find Gill in her tree house dreaming up new stories, with a cup of coffee and a plate of biscuits, in the company of squirrels.
Gill loves drawing and finds that her route into storytelling is often through sketching the characters and scenes from her stories before she starts writing them.
To find out more about Gill visit her website www.gilllewis.com or follow her on Twitter: @gill_lewis
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