A Calf Named Brian Higgins: An Adventure in Rural Kenya

After 13-year-old Hannah and her mother travel from the U.S. to Sauri, a small Kenyan town where Hannah’s uncle Brian works for a non-governmental organization, they experience challenges as they move through the country, including the lack of paved roads to the rural village. Once they arrive, Hannah, who is quick to bicker with her mother and take her own luxuries for granted, begins to see her own privilege. (Factoids about inequality and deprivation, such as that 2.4 billion people in the world lack access to toilets, are integrated into the story.) When Brian is killed in a bus crash, Hannah and her Kenyan friend Wilkister decide to try to get the road to Sauri paved to prevent further tragedies. Not all of the characters are well developed, but Higgins, who has lived and worked in Sauri, writes from an informed visitor’s perspective in this coming-of-age journey that engages readers in Hannah’s adventures while educating them about the stark conditions in much of the developing world. Ages 9–10. [em](Aug.) [/em]