The Warm Place — Nancy Farmer

It's going to take more than a little "giraffe magic" to save Ruva.

Ruva lives peacefully with her giraffe family in Africa -- until she is kidnapped by the dastardly Slope family and shipped to an American zoo. Then she meets the wise rats Troll and Rodentus; a magical chameleon named Nelson; and Jabila, a boy who has been kidnapped by the Slopes, too. Can the five outwit their captors and find “the warm place” that is home?