Subtitle: The Incredible Story of a Child Raised by Monkeys
Authors: Marina Chapman (who is now 70, and was kidnapped at age "almost 5"); plus her daughter Vanessa James, and ghostwriter Lynn Barrett-Lee
Published in 2013, so it came out 10+ years ago. The book was fascinating for the first half. Then the second half, I skimmed quite a bit, because the book became too much about the agony Marina went through after she was "saved" from the jungle, and entered a hellish human world.
In a nutshell, in Colombia, 1950s, it was common for kids to be kidnapped and sold into slavery. When Marina is snatched, she's thrown in the back of a pick-up truck with several other scared, crying kids. At some point, the kidnappers must have been in danger of getting caught, and they needed to get rid of the "evidence" (kids) -- maybe they'd already sold the others, because Marina was the only one that they run into the jungle with. They carried her deep into it, and left her there.
It's a hard story to grasp-- that it's true. But she explains how she befriended a troop of monkeys, and she learned from them which foods were safe to eat. It seems that her young age was a sort of advantage, in that, she was willing to see the monkeys as a family, and she was able to let go of her formative years, and...be a monkey. Naked. Pottying wherever. Having bugs all over her.
The 2nd half of book deals with life in Colombia for this girl, and so many unwanted kids -- kids whose poverty-stricken families kick out the older ones because there's no food. Many end up as "street kids."
I found this book in a free pile, and will donate it back; I just needed a filler while convalescing. I give it 3 stars (out of 5).
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