Connecting through Stories - Binti

Binti covers a few different types of connections that many readers can relate to today: an individual's connection to their family and to their culture; connections between cultures and peoples who are drastically different from each other; and connections of all beings to greater values and their place in the greater universe.

In this story, Binti meets someone she believes to be foreign to her in every sense, but discovers that she might have more in common with this being than she does with many of the people she has encountered throughout her life. She begins to understand the true importance of her homeland's traditions and values, especially in the face of danger. She faces prejudice from others, but also has to confront and overcome her own prejudices, in the name of interspecies and intercultural cooperation and growth.

Annotation: Binti is the first of the Himba people ever offered a place at the elite Oomza University. She must leave her family and travel to a world at war with the nightmarish, alien Meduse people, where she will need all her assets to survive. Contains some strong language and some violence. Commercial audiobook. 2015.