"Memoirs of childhood -- quirkier the better -- remain a staple... Robyn Scott's evocative account of growing up in Botswana qualifies on all accounts, including quirkiness." - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Memoirs of childhood -- quirkier the better -- remain a staple. Memoirs of African childhoods are a popular subgenre.

Robyn Scott's evocative account of growing up in Botswana qualifies on all accounts, including quirkiness. After growing up in New Zealand, she moved at 7 with her family to the desert-laden, land-locked country just north of South Africa.

Her father was a doctor who flew his own plane to rural clinics, while her mother was a scientist. The three Scott children had to adjust to acute culture shock in "a surreal place."

In Botswana, tribal witch doctors competed with their father's medical services and the original Scott family home was a former cowshed. That was hardly the only eccentricity of their home-schooled upbringing.

Scott, who now lives in London, writes: "After Dad had kissed each of us good night -- 'Sleep tight, mind the scorpions don't bite' -- Mum would lean over for her good-night kiss and then tuck in the mosquito net. With mosquito control, as with food and medicines, Mum and Dad, wherever possible, insisted on natural, nonprocessed, nonsynthetic, chemical-free, additive-free, environmentally friendly alternatives."