Eric Walters,
Beverly Hills Maasai
Doubleday, 2010.

Rating: G*

Eric Walters' gift is his ability to entice the reader to suspend belief when reading his stories and to accept the unlikely as truth. Beverly Hills Maasai, like its predecessor, Alexandria of Africa, engages the reader in the adventures and further adventures of Alexandria Hyatt, rich , Beverly Hills teen.

In this sequel, Africa comes to Alexandria, as Nebala, a Maasai warrior she met during her community service stint at a village in Kenya, calls her from LAX to pick up him and his two Maasai friends who have come to run the Beverly Hills Marathon to win prize money to build a well in their village.

The juxtaposition between life in a Kenyan village and life in Beverly Hills provides the Maasai with as much mystery, confusion, and awe as it did Alexandria, who takes on educating the warriors in the ways of life in the big city. Hilarious events, faux pas and hurdles plague the Maasai, who meet  the unknown head-on to win, only to realize that success and  goal achievement doesn't  mean first over the finish line.

Beverly Hill Maasai provides both a what if... story combined with lessons in values, fair play and the milk of human kindness.  It is an entertaining recreational read, and an appealing character education piece.

Thematic Links: Beverly Hills; Big City Life

Sharon Armstrong
Vol. 16, number 2
December 2010

*Rating System:
E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
G - Good, even great at times, generally useful!
A - Average, all right, has its applications.
P - Problematic, puzzling, poorly presented.