Thirteen-year-old Georgie Wilde has a head full of dreams and an insatiable sense of adventure. Sailing around the world, climbing Mount Everest and learning Swahili are just a few of the challenges Georgie is intent on tackling. And the list gets longer every day. Georgie is determined to accomplish great things in life.

When she begins exchanging letters with her new penpal Ellie, a girl her own age who lives in a small village in Tanzania, Georgie's life takes a new turn. She soon hatches a plan to visit Ellie in Tanzania. Her friends at school think it's a great idea; all Georgie has to do is convince her parents. Her mom isn't easily swayed, and her Dad, who lives with his new wife and family, is no better. Georgie is no further on her way to achieving her dreams, but something Ellie says in one of her letters gives her an idea ...

Author Lisa Joyal has her finger on the pulse of the active socially-committed lifestyle of many of today's youth. In Swahili for Beginners, she touches on issues that her readers face at school and home on a daily basis, and places them in the wider context of a changing world. Joyal has given us a deftly written story filled with beautifully drawn characters with whom contemporary young people can wholeheartedly identify.