Born in 1862, Mary Kingsley grew up in a desolate house outside London where she did chores and cared for her invalid mother while her father traveled around the world. She never attended school but taught herself out of the books in her father's library. Her parents died when she was 30, and Mary, having rarely left the house, set off for West Africa. There she encountered giant flying insects, hippos, crocodiles, raging rivers, uncharted forests, slimy swamps, and members of the Adjoumba, Igalwa, and M'pongwe, and (her favorite) Fang tribes. Mary Kingsley loved it all. Already captivating text is made even more so with quotes from Mary's own writings. Gently humorous watercolors capture the unflappable heroine's spirit.