The Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life with the Chimps by Jeanette Winter

I've had this book for a few years and I plucked it off the shelf today in honour of International Women's Day. I expected E to protest (as he's inclined to do with many of my suggestions lately), but today there were no gripes and together we enjoyed reading about the life of Jane Goodall.

Created by the much revered author/illustrator Jeanette Winter, this book works as a biography on a child's level and it works as a story plain and simple. The illustrations are wondrous and together with the text they lure you into Jane's world. Immediately you care about Jane, her work, the chimpanzees and the environment.  Time passes quite peacefully at first which is why the arrival of the hunters towards the end, and the dose of reality they bring with them, is that much more startling.

I think this is a hugely important book and it's prompted numerous conversations between E and me.  Many at fist were understandably about the hunters but today it was also about watching, how we define home and what it's like for a little girl to work hard and make a dream come true.