Steve Siegel was a good friend and tennis partner for several years until he moved back to Chicago and we fell out of touch. In Portland, Steve was an EPA attorney and, later, an elementary school teacher. He was an activist for animal rights. As volunteers, Steve and I each gathered 1,000 petition signatures in the effort to ban steel-jawed leg-hold traps and cruel poisons. In the fall of 1998, Steve spent four months as a volunteer for the Jane Goodall Institute in Africa. He met the chimps at the Gombe Research Center, including Galahad[1] who died in the winter of 2000. Steve taught Africans about the environment and how people can preserve our planet’s fragile ecology. Steve was kind enough to read Bentari and offer these comments.
Dear Tim:
As you know, I read and enjoyed Bentari. It is a wonderful story. Since visiting Tanzania in 1998 and volunteering with the Jane Goodall Institute, I have read a number of wildlife books, but none that I can just relax, smile, and become absorbed back into the world of Africa. I started reading Bentari at a time when I hadn't read an entire book for a while. Occasionally my work as an attorney just leaves me worn out, and I was going through a
period of picking up books, starting them, and leaving them unfinished. Bentari quickly changed that pattern.
Once I picked up Bentari, I couldn't put it down. I loved the story and it brought me into its world. I cared about the characters and just kept reading. The story not only is a good read, but is also a very visual story. It is easy to imagine Bentari presented in the format of a Disney movie. I'll add that at about the same time I read Bentari, I also read the first of the Harry Potter books (I've now read all four). I enjoyed Bentari every bit as much as Harry. Now I'm looking forward to Bentari's [next adventure] so I can get more of his story. Thanks for sharing your writing with me. It is a true gift.
Steve
Steve is a kind man who I dearly miss. A strong feeling tells me that our paths will cross again, and I will be most fortunate when that day comes.
Image: a handmade card that Steve sent from Tanzania, 11/8/1998 (apologies to the unknown artist)
[1] Steve’s photo of Galahad’s mother Gremlin and his twin siblings Glitter and Gold is posted at:
http://www.bentari.com/Blog/Entry.aspx?pid=276&bid=51&beid=750