Sauver les bongos des montagnes

Shiku and Lemayian are best friends living in Nanyuki, a town at the foot of Mt. Kenya. Every day they walk a forest footpath to school, and they've come to know its wildlife well. One weekend they wander deeper than usual, get briefly lost, and stumble into a sunlit clearing where a herd of mountain bongos is grazing. The animals turn out to be curious rather than dangerous - but they're struggling to reach enough food, so the children gather leafy branches and feed them, promising to look out for the herd.The next day they return to find two armed men in the forest. Gunshots ring out, the children try to flee, Shiku gets caught in a poacher's net, and both are tied up and driven to a remote compound. Along the way, Lemayian secretly drops red rocks from his pocket out the truck window. Locked in a shed, they watch the poachers sell skins and horns to buyers in a green jeep, then wait until the men drink themselves to sleep before kicking loose two wall slats and escaping. Lemayian's trail of rocks leads them home under a full moon, to a village that has gathered at the police station searching for them.Rather than simply recovering, the two work quietly with the police, guiding officers back to the compound. The poachers are arrested, and Nanyuki celebrates the children's courage. Years on, a wildlife sanctuary stands where mountain bongos and other animals live safely - and Shiku and Lemayian are its patrons, still walking their footpath together.This book is bilingual in English and French.