Representation: Black, Asian and biracial (half Black and half white, half Black and half Asian) characters
Trigger warnings: Adoption, physical and terminal illness, death of parents and children from a contagion, grief and loss depiction
Score: Five points out of ten.
I own this book.

Where do I begin with this one? This book was one amongst many that was part of a library giveaway, and initially, it looked promising, until the low ratings and reviews lowered my expectations. I burned through other fictional works I owned, then I picked up this one and read it. When I finished it, it was a perfect example of how not to write a diverse story, since a white author wrote about a Black character. Abela is inaccurate at best, and blackface and cultural appropriation at worst.

It starts with the first two characters I see, Abela, the titular one who is Black, and Rosa who is biracial. Abela lived in an impoverished Tanzanian village infected with HIV/AIDS. Many people have died already, including some on the page, most likely for shock value and exaggerated and glorified trauma rather than anything meaningful. A few pages later, I see Rosa's perspective with her white mother, and that's where the flaws surface: the characters are hard to connect or relate with, even though Abela went through hardship to find a foster family after her biological parents succumbed to HIV/AIDS. The narrative is too disjointed because it switches between POVs every second chapter (sometimes that can work, but since Abela and Rosa are in different locations for most of it, that device ruins my enjoyment.)

Abela first resides at her social worker's house, but she is abusive so she has to move to another house with white people which didn't work out that well. This time the family is British Nigerian (wow, that's her third foster family) and again, subtle cultural differences prevent her from staying there. Rosa's mother considered adding an adoptive child to her family, much to Rosa's chagrin. Rosa once had an adoptive brother whose name I forgot, but his biological father wanted him back despite the circumstances, much to her shock. The conclusion occurred in the final pages where Abela stayed at Rosa and Rosa's mother's house, making that her fourth foster family, but that only felt like white saviourism at this point. Couldn't the author make it that Abela stayed at a British Tanzanian family's house instead? A Black author would've done a better job. ( )

I bought Abela over a year ago, and read the first chapter, then due to many factors I put it to one side to read lots of other books in between. I returned to it only yesterday and have just put it down now. What a beautiful book. It is one of those few perfectly formed, eloquently written and superbly characterized books that you struggle to put down and will stay in your mind for days to come.

The themes of love, loss and security are universal, but the story itself is a unique one that explores topics of adoption, trafficking, illegal immigration and even FGM. It is narrated from both protagonists' points of view - 13 year old Rosa in Sheffield, and 9 year old Abela first in Tanzania and then in England, with Abela eventually being adopted by Rosa's mother, Jen. There is a special poignancy in the way that Abela's childlike fears, hopes and perspectives are contrasted with the adult way of looking at things, and I was moved to tears at times. ( )

A poignant, moving story about a young African orphan. ( )

How much reality is too much reality? In “The Girl who Saw Lion” Berlie Doherty attempts to write a novel about Abela, an African child who is left orphaned and unprotected. In the novel she must quickly cope with the fact that her father has died, her mother is dying from aides and her baby sister is dying as well. The society she lives in, and the culture that surrounds her, is unable to provide any support to her. In fact her own family takes advantage of her desperate situation and she is truly alone in a hostile world. Eventually she becomes property of the state where she is adopted and united to a single parent run household. Here Adela finds the love and support needed to recapture a childhood lost, and she once again transitions into a member of the family with a “new” sister Rose and a “new” mother. I would recommend this book to families who are in the process of adopting international children, or to adults who want to bring social awareness to young children about the realities of foster children. Certainly, young minds can read the book but it would be ideal if they were given the social context of the main idea of the story. Some children become refugees and lose their families, and some world organizations work through adoptions to find suitable homes where these children may find new families who can love and support them.
Ages 5th grade and Up ( )

This is a story about 2 young girls. The first young girl is Abela and her parents have both died. Her mother was dying of AIDS. She tries to save her mother but no matter what she does she can’t save her mother. Her uncle illegally gets her into England and she is forced to live in seclusion. She is eventually rescued and placed is put into foster care.

The second girl, named Rosa is an only child, who feels betrayed when her mother wants to adopt another child.
Abela remains strong just as she had promised her mother she would, while she waits for a family of her own. Rosa comes to understand why her mother wants to adopt another child. Even though Abela’s been treated very badly, the two girls come together with a shared heritage and become a family.

This book deals with the topic of AIDS and I believe that it would a book that as a teacher I should send a note with a review of the book on in and require a parental consent before allowing a student to read it. This book should probably not be introduced in to the literature program until in 6th grade and the students have had their Sex Education Class. This book does not specifically go into how the mother contacted AIDS but it could still be controversial. The class could discuss the effects of aids on the human body and what it would take to become a citizen of another country. Also this could be used in a geography session by locating the places talked about in the story on the maps. This was a very good book.