Celebrate 20 years of Lauren St John’s Wildlife Series!
Lauren St John is the bestselling author behind The White Giraffe series. The latest instalment in these heartwarming animal adventures is The Lion Cub’s Secret.
This week, we are partnering with Hachette Children’s Books to give you the chance to WIN a full set of all six books! Read on to find out how to enter.
Lauren St John’s White Giraffe series has become internationally beloved. This is the perfect time to discover – or rediscover – this bestselling series, ahead of its 20th anniversary this year, and with a new title out this week called The Lion Cub’s Secret.
Lauren St John’s books will be familiar to BooksForTopics users from their appearances on numerous of our children’s booklists, including Best Animal Books for Children, Books for fans of Michael Morpurgo and children’s books set in Africa, among others.
A lesson pack to accompany The White Giraffe is also available to download.
We’re delighted that Lauren visited our blog this week to answer questions about the series.
Q&A with Lauren St John
The White Giraffe was published almost 20 years ago. Congratulations! What made you want to write a new story in this series?
Firstly, I can’t believe that it’s almost 20 years since I wrote The White Giraffe, dreaming that it might someday be published. It changed my life in the loveliest way. Each book in the series is an adventure about an extraordinary wild creature, but it occurred to me recently that I’d never written a book about lions, which I adore. The idea for The Lion Cub’s Secret came to me really quickly. I couldn’t wait to sit down and write the story.
Can you tell us about The Lion Cub’s Secret?
After Martine rescues an orphaned lion cub from a market, she dreams of keeping it forever. But it turns out that Tau, the cub, has been snatched from one of South Africa’s most famous wildlife reserves.
When Martine and her best friend Ben are invited to the reserve to help settle Tau in, they leap at the chance. But the wild, beautiful landscape is riddled with mysteries and secrets, and the lion cub’s secret is the biggest of all. Once Martine and Ben start asking questions, they quickly discover that there are those who’ll stop at nothing to get to Tau. Will the lonely lion ever be truly free?
Have you ever been involved in a real-life animal rescue?
Growing up on a farm and game reserve in Zimbabwe, my family were always rescuing injured and orphaned animals – cats, dogs, lambs and calves, as well as warthogs, birds and antelope. After I wrote The White Giraffe, I became an ambassador for the Born Free Foundation. Helping them rescue three leopards from a zoo in Cyprus and set captive dolphins free in the sea in Turkey were among the most special experiences of my life. Closer to home, I had two incredible rescue cats – Felix, who my mum saved as a day-old kitten from the streets of Mozambique, and Max, a Bengal I rescued from the RSPCA in Kent – for 17 years.
What kind of discussions would you like The White Giraffe series to prompt in schools?
I think a lot of young people feel overwhelmed by the deluge of bad news on climate change and the natural world, but I hope my books inspire children and show that anyone of any age can make a difference. Kindness costs nothing. Caring is free. You might not be able to save every bee, bird or hedgehog, but if you plant insect-friendly flowers and put fresh water and food out for small creatures on hot days or freezing days, you can make a huge difference in your own school, garden or neighbourhood. You can also appeal to your family, school or local MP to use less plastic and plant more trees and meadows.
What’s your top writing tip for budding authors?
If you want to be an author, my advice is to read as much and as widely as you can. It doesn’t matter whether you like funny books, graphic novels, mysteries, sci-fi, or all of them, just read!
Can you recommend other books for animal lovers?
Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson, The Last Wild trilogy by Piers Torday, Paddock Grove: A Pony to Own by JP Rose, or anything by Nicola Davies or Gill Lewis.
What is the best thing about writing for children?
I love the writing part, because every day I get to live these amazing adventures on the pages of my books, and I enjoy meeting young readers because they’re so open-hearted. They care so deeply about nature and books and about making the world a better place. That gives me hope.
Win a Book Set!
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the series, we’ve got a full set of all six books to give away.
This giveaway is open to anyone who follows @booksfortopics on Instagram. One entry per Instagram handle.
To enter, simply make sure you’re following our IG account and fill in the form by 11.59pm on Thursday 16th October 2025. The giveaway is open to UK entrants only, and full T&Cs can be found here.
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Where next?- Visit our Reading for Pleasure Hub
- Browse our Topic Booklists
- View our printable year group booklists.
- See our Books of the Month.