When she is eleven years old, Martine is orphaned & sent to live with her grandmother on a game reserve in South Africa. Her grandmother seems strangely unwelcoming & Martine has a difficult time settling in at her new school, where she is conspicuously an outsider. But she has an ally in Tendai
- one of the keepers on the reserve, from whom she learns the lore & survival techniques of the bush, & in Grace
- who instantly senses there is something special about Martine. There are secrets about Sawubona (the reserve) just waiting to be revealed, & rumours too about a fabled white giraffe
- a trophy for hunters everywhere. One night Martine, lonely & feeling slightly rebellious too, looks out of her window & see a young albino giraffe
- silver, tinged with cinnamon in the moonlight. This is the beginning of her mysterious & magical adventures
- her discovery of her gift of healing & a secret valley that she travels to with the giraffe, where she`ll find clues about her past & future. Above all it`s is a heart-warming story, full of charm & atmosphere, & Martine`s sheer delight in her giraffe friend & the fantastic landscape which is theirs to explore.