Book Review Of The Cat Who Was Afraid of His Shadow (Griot Tales Book 1) by Oumar Dieng

  • The Cat Who Was Afraid of His Shadow (Griot Tales Book 1) 

    Oumar Dieng 
  • Series: Griot Tales
  • Paperback: 52 pages
  • Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (October 6, 2014)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1490473882
  • ISBN-13: 978-1490473888



Book Description:
The tortoise takes a marble out of the pouch, studies it at length then speaks. "OK. Get on." "Get on what?" asks Silky, confused. The tortoise points at his shell. "You are kidding, right? You are like a hundred years old! I will break you in half if I sit on you!" The tortoise smacks Silky on the head with his cane and declares solemnly, "I am a hundred and fifteen years old. And no, I never kid around. Do you want to go home or not?" "Fine!" says Silky. "Don't go blaming me if you get hurt." "Hold on tight!" says the tortoise. Book Summary: A ruthless suburban cat that terrorizes all animals reigns supreme at a farmhouse, until a faithful day when he meets an unexpected foe. An extraordinary journey begins, revealing a hidden and wondrous world that spans the four corners of the earth. Everything changes… This children’s book is the first in the "Griot Tales" series. The book seamlessly infuses educational and fun facts while maintaining children’s interest in the storyline.


Book Review:
By: Brittany Perez (Oh My Bookness)
@OhMyBookness
December 7, 2014


The Cat Who Was Afraid Of His Shadow by Oumar Dieng follows a traditional African storytelling but unfortunately the story telling did not always make sense. There is also illustrations that have been over simplified that do no not add to the story but take away from the overall book because in the end a solid piece of art, illustration, drawing, even, even simple helps to pull a story together and makes sense. Imagery can help make or break a story, this is taking away and no beliefs to it being there because it's not supporting the text and has a drab look.

The vocabulary is large for younger children but nothing that can't easily be fixed.  You don't want children to be discouraged, for example larger words, have at the end of the book a index with definition so it can be a learning book as well, and the child can get a feel of more independent reading style without feeling so frustrated and having to go to someone to explain each word.

Than on the other hand the writing was very stiff, and did not flow together. Beyond the vocab issues,  I really wouldn't  call it that because it can it be easily managed in so many different manners. The story did not flow sentence to sentence, from chapters to  chapter, and it would end abruptly in places In places throughout.

The illustrations were not the best and unnecessary only because they did not add to the story. These are a little harder to fix without going back in and either scrapping the original design, re designing with a like more depth, dimension, movement, and color so it does not appear so flat. Reworking from scratch would be the easiest and in the end not as timely because you know what to look out for if starting over.

Overall though the story has good message, do not unto to others that you do in turn want done to you. Is good. It just the message came across In peculiar ways that made it seem all over the place instead of a intentional transition it came across like it was jumping around from one to the next.

A nice children's book, I would say more 6 or 7+ age range, it's a good read aloud book to even read silently to ones self. Every book is meant to push the reader and to help improve a comprehension and reading level with keeping appropriate age levels in thought. Yes this book could improve in certain areas but in the end it's got interesting characters and good underlying positive message. 



Authors Upcoming Projects:
* Sail and the Five Kingdoms-Young Adult Fiction, 2015 release date
* The Zebra Who Had No Stripes - Children's Fiction, 2015 release Date (Book 2, "Griot Tales" Series).
* Raising Perfect Children: 101 Things I Wish I Knew Before Becoming a Parent -Self Help, 2015 release date.,ok 
* Savannah Sun: Inspirational Poems from a Son of Africa-Poetry, 2014 release date.







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