Facing the Lion: Growing up Maasai on the African Savanna

by Joseph Lekuton

     I am working to find some great nonfiction reads for my third and fourth grade Virtual Reading Classroom students.  I ran across this memoir/autobiography of Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton and thought  I would give it a try.  I found the book to be fascinating, engaging and thought provoking.

    Joseph Lekuton tells the story of his childhood, of what it was like to grow up as a Maasai in Africa.  Not only does the reader hear amusing anecdotes of Lekuton's defining childhood moments, his story also clearly demonstrates the social implications of his family's position in Kenya.  Lekuton writes of the cattle his family reveres and his family's willingness to sell those cattle in order to provide him with an education that they don't understand.  Slowly, Lekuton realizes the change that education has made in his way of thinking. He struggles to keep his ties to his African family as he moves on to achieve a college education in the United States.  

    This book was published in 2003, and I am quite surprised that I hadn't run across it until now.  It is a good read.