The Girl with No Name by Marina Chapman

Imagine all the things you learn as a toddler — how to speak, how to eat solid food, how to clean yourself. Now image if you could actually remember learning to do all of these things, not because you have a great memory, but because you were actually a pre-teen when they happened. Thus is the case for Marina Chapman, who, after being kidnapped from her village as a young girl, was abandoned in the jungle and lived among a troop of monkeys like a real-life Mowgli.

Chapman’s story is one of unthinkable circumstance — an incredible situation that only gets more jaw-dropping after her eventual return to civilization. Not only does this unbelievable tale expose the underbelly of 1950s Colombia, at its root is the message that, “Family is anywhere you’re cared and loved for.”

The Girl with No Name, Marina Chapman, $23. Available at Indigo.ca and Amazon.ca.