Bascom, Tim. Chameleon days: an American boyhood in Ethiopia.

BASCOM, Tim. Chameleon days: an American boyhood in Ethiopia. Houghton Mifflin, Mariner. 240p. illus. bibliog. c2006. 0-618-65869-6. $12.00. JSA*

As a very small boy in Ethiopia, Tim Bascorn had a chameleon as a pet. More importantly, he felt that he had to become one. When Tim was three, his Christian missionary parents moved him and his two brothers to a small medical mission outpost in rural Ethiopia. With his older brother at boarding school and his younger brother too small to play with, Tim built his own world, perched high in an avocado tree. From there he watched life in the small town and medical outpost, peering down even as the emperor Haile Selassie made a state visit.

Tim's family moved back to Kansas for a year, then returned to Ethiopia to an even smaller medical outpost. This time, however, Tim, a second grader, joined his older brother at an Addis Ababa boarding school for the children of missionaries. Once more he had to adjust to a new environment. He did so with painful difficulty. By the time he was about to start fourth grade, the family moved back in Kansas, forced out of Ethiopia by political upheaval. Here they stayed, and Tim's chameleon days were over. Neither he nor the reader can ever forget them. Patricia Moore, Chestnut Hill, MA

J--Recommended for junior high school students. The contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers.

S--Recommended for senior high school students.

A--Recommended for advanced students and adults. This code will help librarians and teachers working in high schools where there are honors and advanced placement students. This also will extend KLIATT's usefulness in public libraries.

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