Jack and His Ostrich: An African Story

Jack Treby's world is the South African veldt, wide and lawless, and his only companion on the lonely farm is Vickel, an ostrich as tall as his father. When thieves burn the homestead and slaughter the flock, Jack and his widowed father flee into the night with nothing but each other and the bird who might be their only hope. Seeking help from distant Boer neighbors, Jack must cross a landscape that is as hostile as it is beautiful, learn to communicate across cultures that do not understand each other, and hold tight to his English identity while everything around him demands he become someone new. This is adventure fiction from 1896 at its most intimate: a boy and his ostrich against the frontier, where survival means letting go of the past and finding courage in the unexpected. The colonial setting gives the story its texture, but the heart is purely that of a child learning that home is not a place but the people and creatures you choose to keep close.