The Girl Who Survived The Jungle

The Girl Who Survived the Jungle
The true story of Lesly Mucutuy

Big Reads, No Barriers - Non-fiction adventures for emerging readers
Andrew Chandler

What would you do if you were thirteen years old and suddenly found yourself lost in the Amazon jungle?

On 1 May 2023, a small plane crashed deep in the Colombian Amazon.

Four children survived.

Lesly Mucutuy was thirteen. Her sister Soleiny was nine. Her brother Tien Noriel was four. And baby Cristin was just eleven months old.

The children were alone in one of the world's largest rainforests.

They had little food and water. They were hurt, tired and frightened. Lesly had to help look after the younger children as they moved through the jungle.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people were searching for them.

Aircraft flew over the trees.

Soldiers and Indigenous searchers moved through the jungle.

They followed footprints and tiny clues left behind by the children.

But the jungle was enormous.

For days, the searchers could not find them.

Then, after 39 days, something incredible happened.

The four children were found alive.

The Girl Who Survived the Jungle tells the remarkable true story of Lesly and her three younger siblings, from the moment the plane crashed to the day they were finally rescued.

Big Reads, No Barriers is a series of true, exciting books written for children and young teenagers who may find reading difficult.

The books are aimed at readers around 10-15 years old, but use simple vocabulary, short sentences and short chapters to make them accessible to readers how find the process of reading challenging.

Written in UK (British) English.

The idea is simple:

Reading ability should not decide what stories you can enjoy.

These are not small stories for younger children.

They are big stories about real people, real adventures and extraordinary events.

If you enjoy adventure, survival, danger and true stories but find long or complicated books difficult to read, Big Reads, No Barriers is for you.

• A real plane crash in the Colombian Amazon
• Four children who survived
• A thirteen-year-old girl caring for her younger siblings
• The challenges of surviving in a huge rainforest
• The search for the missing children
• The clues that showed rescuers they were still alive
• The remarkable rescue after 39 days
• A true story of courage, survival and hope

The story is big.

The words are simple.

There are no barriers.