Child of the Jungle, Sabine Kuegler

Sabine Kuegler was five years old when her linguist-missionary parents took her, along with her brother and sister, to live in West Papua, Indonesia. Settling in a thatched hut, cut off from civilization except for a short-wave radio, they lived among the Fayu, a recently discovered Stone Age people, most of whose members had never seen a white person before.
A people nearing extinction because of continuous tribal war, the Fayu consider grubs and bats delicacies, kill for revenge, and yet long for a peace they don't know how to achieve.
And they live in paradise: a lush jungle of hidden grottoes, emerald-green foliage, scarlet orchids, and exotic animals. In this unimaginably beautiful place, young Sabine grows up. She joins the Fayu children such as Tuare, who calls Sabine his sister, and almost becomes a wild child herself. During seemingly endless sunny days and starlit nights, they hunt with primitive bows, play without fear, and create fabulous adventures.
Then, when Sabine is a teenager, tragedy strikes and she makes the difficult decision to leave. After her arrival at a Swiss boarding school, she finds that even a trip to the grocery story exposes her naiveté and dating becomes a minefield of confusion. But the West holds opportunities that would be impossible among the Fayu, and now on the brink of womanhood, the child of the jungle faces a heart-wrenching choice: whether to join modern society or return to the paradise that will always be home. (by www.globecorner.com)