Obviously, some of the topics are very sensitive (for example the mention of torture), so parents and teachers have to use their discretion. But when I’ve been teaching Years 5 and 6 , I’ve found this book perfect for PSHE lessons and assemblies. This book could cover lots of different lessons! It would make a great gift for new parents too, as they reflect upon the values they wish to share with their child. We joined Wildlife and Countryside Link – a coalition of British wildlife organisations to chair work on wildlife crime and trade. This is the original first edition of Born Free from 1960, when it was entitled Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds. Later editions were to change the subtitle. Most people now know the story of a lion cub, who was raised in captivity, and then returned to the wild. This is the first part of the trilogy, written by Joy Adamson, wife of the Senior Game Warden of Kenya. Together, they made this remarkable story happen. Shortly afterward, George and his wife, Joy, discovered the lioness’ young cubs. Realizing that he had orphaned three lion cubs and that death was imminent without their mother’s presence, George and Joy took it upon themselves to adopt and raise the cubs.

Of the three lion cubs, Big One and Lustica — meaning “Jolly One” — were the biggest, strongest, and most vocal of the litter. Elsa, the runt, “[…] would have probably been the throw-out of the pride,” Joy wrote. She went on to say, “[…] one usually sees only two cubs with a lioness [as] another is often too weak to be reared”. affirms the fundamental rights of all human beings in simplified a child-friendly version. The book builds on this foundation of commonality and depicts it with lavish diversity. Each artist brings their signature style and interpretation to these important words.Some years later, Joy and George soon have to travel to Kiunga as George has been told by his boss, John Kendall (Geoffrey Keen) about a lion who is killing goats in a local village. George successfully manages to kill the lion and he and Joy are able to share a special holiday with Elsa, where they introduce her to the Indian Ocean. On returning to the Northern Province, the Adamsons learn that Elsa has caused a massive elephant stampede. Kendall states that the Adamsons can no longer keep Elsa and must find a zoo to take her in. However, Joy instead wishes to teach Elsa how to survive in the wild, which Kendall reluctantly gives her and George three months to do. Adamson's writing flows like a conversation between friends. The adventures with Elsa touch you in a very special way that true stories usually do. I had moments of laughter and smiles as well as tears.

Later on, Elsa has three cubs. They are not nearly as tame or accepting towards humans as their mother, and they constantly struggle between imitating her actions and following their instincts. In April, we launched ‘Guardians of Dja’, a holistic programme in Dja Landscape, Cameroon, to protect chimpanzees and gorillas and their rainforest habitat. The UK’s new Animal Welfare Act launched; we continued to lobby for an end to the use of all wild animals in circuses.This is a powerful and thought provoking book that can be shared time and time again; and is a great introduction to politics for older pupils in KS2. A sound investment for a child’s understanding of ‘protective behaviours’. Into the Blue launched. The conservation coalition successfully returned three of the UK’s last captive dolphins to the seas off Caribbean’s Turks & Caicos Islands. We joined other EU animal welfare organisations to establish the European Alliance to End the Keeping of Dolphins and Whales in Captivity. Champlin, C. (10 October 1966). "Foreman hopes to reverse runaway". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest 155553672. I was expecting something like The Lion King but then I remembered real life isn't a Disney movie. What an incredibly impactful book. Elsa's story is as inspiring as it is heartbreaking. Her legacy continues to inspire millions of people around the world.

The film Born Free was released in 1966, and it is abundantly clear that the understanding of wild animals – their natures, needs and desires – has improved dramatically since then. Sadly, Joy and her husband are unable to return Elsa to the wild completely despite their attempts and she remains “domesticated” to a large extent. A lion who is friendly to humans does not seem to have much of a future in the wild. Elsa also appears to be highly dependent on the couple for her meals most of the time. Born to Victor and Traute Gessner in Troppau, Silesia, Austria-Hungary (now Opava, Czech Republic) and was the 2nd of 3 girls. Her father was a wealthy architect. After the divorce of her parents, Joy went to live with her grandmother. In her autobiography The Searching Spirit, Adamson wrote about her grandmother, saying, "It is to her I owe anything that may be good in me." We launched an extensive lion conservation project in Meru National Park in Kenya, the stunning landscape where Elsa the lioness was returned to the wild.

InfoCircus coalition launched by Born Free with Spanish organisations, ANDA and FAADA, to highlight plight of wild animals in circuses in Spain with the aim of a total ban. This is the book the film was based upon, the story of Elsa the lioness, hand raised by a Senior Game Warden and his wife, Joy Adamson, and later released into the wild. This would be rated five stars except that I really try to be stingy with those. The book didn't make me cry, laugh-out-loud or change my thinking, and Adamson, while she writes well and fluently, doesn't have the impressive, lyrical prose of Beryl Markham and Isak Dinesen, two other European women who wrote celebrated memoirs about their time in Kenya. With ENDCAP, we helped authorities develop an EU Policy for Animal Welfare to improve standards for all wild animals in captivity in Europe. I had a few issues with the book, one of which was the writting. Adamson's style is pretty dry and dull, sometimes using a lot more detail than needed for fairly mundane things like setting up camp (which they do a lot, if I read about setting camp again I'm going to lose it). Another problem the book had was that Elsa never seemed trully living in the wild - till her last day she lived close to the Adamsons' camp, frequently recieved food which George A. killed himself. Despite the numerous times Joy A. said she hoped Elsa could learn to hunt on her own it didn't seem like the two of them let her get hungry enough to attempt hunting on her own consistently. Born Free USA successfully encouraged the US government to list the polar bear as ‘threatened’ under the US Endangered Species Act and prohibit the import of bear ‘trophies’ from hunting.