Keena Roberts, in this delightful coming-of-age memoir, describes a life divided. Her parents, both primatologists, are on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania and divide their time between field research and teaching. Where they go, they take their two daughters, including their wild life research stations in Kenya and Okavango Delta in Botswana. During their time in the States, their daughters attend the prestigious Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia and one of the poshest zip codes in America. Thus Keena trades the threats of wildlife in Africa for the threats of equally-vicious animals—the mean girls—at her school. I too have spent time in Africa and on Philadelphia’s Main Line. Roberts’s descriptions of these vastly different locales are spot on. Wild Life alternates between hilarity and tears as the reader watches Keena learn to meld her inner pirate-female-goddess-world-explorer with the teenager who simply wants to be part of her la-di-da school. Her strength and persistence pull her through, and you’ll enjoy reading the final chapters in which she pulls her life together. Loved this book.
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