Jamil's Shadow
Christine Harris

A Puffin Book 2001

64p pbk $12.95

0-14-131210-6

Jamils Shadow is about a boy named Jamil. Hes suffering through the hardship of losing his parents and living by himself. Hes keeping himself apart from the village and makes a living by looking after his herd of cattle. Then a stray dog finds him and everything changes.

Jamils Shadow is a touching story written by Christne Harris. It is written wonderfully in a way that makes you feel what Jamil feels. Christine has written beautifully what it feels to lose someone. Any reader would think of this book as fantastic. I think its more than fantastic, more like perfect. The readers, whod like this story best, would be the ones that have lost someone in their lives. Itll help them make good choices through their time of hardship.

Tharsiga, aged 11, Canberra, ACT

Jamils Shadow is a slim novel set in a remote village of Turkey. The main characters are Jamil (a little boy) and Shadow (Jamils dog).

The story is about Jamil, a lonely boy who was recently orphaned. He finds a scruffy, dirty and lame dog in the mountains while tending to his cattle. This dog starts to annoy Jamil by following him around everywhere. Jamil has found the loss of his loved ones too taxing. So he tries to avoid Shadow as he does not want to get emotionally attached to anyone, not even a dog.

Determined to receive Jamils attention the dog sleeps around his hut at night. Slowly the dog earns Jamils love and eats, sleeps and even survives through a disaster with him.

This story has some humour, and is a heart-warming read. My favourite part was when Jamil found Shadow.

I give it an 8 out of a possible 10 and recommend this book to anyone who likes a story about love and hope.

Aparjit, Year 7, Canberra, ACT

Jamil is living all by himself because his Mum and Dad died. Jamil has to take care of his Dads cattle so everyday he walks up to the paddock and moves them around but one day he was walking and he ditched a stick into a bush then something appeared from the bush it was an old looking dog that was really skinny. He feed it some bread then it stuck around him.

Jamil all most dies from an earthquake but you will have to read to see if he survives.

Jamils Shadow is a thin book, which is pretty good.

Jamil is an orphan. Alone he has looked after his cattle since his parents died. Thats now the way he likes it. He cant bear the risk of losing someone close all over again, but he starts having second thoughts when a stray dog starts following him around despite all his efforts to send the dog away. Suddenly a major catastrophe in his peasant village reinforces the value of his change of heart.

I would like Christine Harris to have included a more detailed description of Jamil so that I could picture his appearance in my mind. He was an interesting character to observe. This book, which provides a thoughtful glimpse into Jamils world of difficulties, made me think about what impact it would have on my life if I was in that situation. I recommend this book for students between the ages 9-12, who could relate to this real-life situation in a foreign land.