Zulu Dog

A Picture Book

Anton Ferreira

- 3.7 • 7 Ratings

- $11.99

- $11.99

An honest and compassionate look at post-apartheid South Africa

Vusi, an eleven-year-old Zulu boy growing up in poverty in rural South Africa, is enchanted by the helpless puppy he finds in the bush. He names it Gillette for its razor-sharp teeth and hides it from his mother, who disapproves of bush dogs as pets. His devotion to Gillette only grows stronger after the puppy is mauled by a leopard and loses a leg. But as boy and dog play carefree games, storm clouds are gathering over Vusi's family - ruthless rival taxi owners are trying to drive his father out of business. While Vusi and Gillette learn to hunt together, they meet the daughter of a neighboring white farmer. Gillette becomes the catalyst for their unlikely friendship, which has a decisive impact on the fate of Vusi's whole family - and the larger community.

A starkly realistic story set against the backdrop of the country's tortured racial history, Zulu Dog holds out the hope that a new generation of South Africans can create a better future for their land.

Zulu Dog is a 2003 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY SEP 9, 2002

Journalist Ferreira's somewhat awkward yet timely first novel centers on 11-year-old Vusi Ngugu, who lives with his extended Zulu family in post-apartheid South Africa. His kin's subsistence lifestyle contrasts dramatically with the privileged existence of the nearby white farmers. One day, Vusi, accompanied by Gillette, the dog he has adopted, ventures onto the land owned by one of the white farmers, "to prove to himself that he is not scared." There he meets 12-year-old Shirley, the farmer's daughter, and the two bond immediately, despite the fact that neither speaks the other's language. The strongest passages center on Vusi and his family, especially Vusi's discovery of Gillette as a pup and their blossoming relationship. Except for a progressive-thinking farmer, Robert Rudolph, many of the sections focusing on white characters become stilted (e.g., "When Shirley gets home that day, she is torn between excitement at the encounter , the fun they had communicating across the language barrier, and trepidation at what her parents would say about a black stranger trespassing on the farm"). Rather forced dialogue from Shirley's father and some of his cronies underscores their bigotry. But the narrative also reveals the economic, social and cultural ramifications of the democratic government under Mandela. Even with the rather heavy-handed message, likable Vusi's coming-of-age tale delivers some affecting scenes and, for readers unfamiliar with South African politics, some eye-opening realities. Ages 10-up.

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