African Readaloud

The boys and I have discovered a "new" readaloud for our African studies.
This one belonged to Duncan(do you remember the story Duncan?)and we only found it when we were trying to make order in some of the bookshelves....How do others cope with the great numbers of books homeschoolers collect?
We like to try to put all those titles of a theme together, then we try to find all the books by a particular author and put them together. Thus Historical fiction is in the hallway near the front door and all historical fiction by Barbara Willard, for instance, is put on the same shelf.
The difficulty arises when you have less shelf space for a theme than you do books...but I digress, back to the find!

We still have 7 more chapters to read but so far we are very happy with our choice. I am reading it to an 8yo+12yo(boys). Be warned though it is not a book for the squeamish: there is a plane crash and all that involves plus they are amongst wild beasts, some of whom(poachers) happen to be human!!But the language is rich in descriptive prose, we have been able to follow the journey of the characters with atlas and google maps and it is a very exciting story!

And without further ado here are some quotes:

"The map helped. It sped the days. Every day he would unfold it carefully and look at it, scanning its greens and browns and blues, savoring its names.
And such names!Names that sang of strangeness and smelled of Africa. Serengeti, Loliondo, Kilimanjaro, Massai Steppe. Names filled with sun and space, and warm winds carrying the tang of loping giraffe."

"A parting. A parting not just of two people who had grown to like each other. More than that. Much more.A parting of generations, which they both recognized. The eternal parting of the young from the old. The old regretting the times gone and the opportunities missed; the young fearful, but eager for the future. The old heart sinking to see the hopes of of his youth made flesh in another; the young heart burning to fly away. When the old look at the young they see time made flesh and bone....Chris smiled. Then he stepped out on the road to Africa."