June 1, 2016 Dear Ben, I have been reading The White Giraffe by Lauren st. John for a few weeks. The story starts off at Martines house where her parents died in a house fire. Martine was forced to move to Africa with her grandmother on a game reserve because she has no one else to stay with after her parents died, but in Africa there are many animals and Martine was never allowed to have animals, But when Martine hears a story about a mystical White Giraffe she finds herself in a situation where she is trying to save the Giraffe she calls Jemmy from poachers. As Martine is trying to save Jemmy the poachers …show more content…
After some time, Martine feels courageous enough to start looking for the white giraffe at midnight. When Martine is almost bitten by a deadly cape cobra in her search, the white giraffe, who she calls Jemmy, saves her. A few nights later Martine is with Jemmy in the wildlife reserve and hears two poachers discussing the giraffe. One of them spots her, and Martine, for the first time, rides on Jemmy to get away. Several nights later, she decides to go back to Jemmy’s secret cave. Inside, she meets Grace. Grace is a sangoma, a woman skilled at healing, and she tells Martine the full story about the ancient cave. Grace also gave Martine a bag of vials, which are used for healing. The next morning, Gwyn Thomas tells Martine the white giraffe has been stolen by poachers. They suspect Jemmy is on a ship, and race to the docks to find him. While searching for Jemmy, Martine meets Ben, a (mostly) silent boy from her class. She quickly explains to him what happened, and he agrees to help. Ben thinks Jemmy is held captive in the cargo hold of the ship his father is captain of. They find Jemmy wounded in the cargo hold, but Martine heals him with Grace's medicines. They then ride back to the game reserve, where the police capture the