Shadow

Format:

Book

Title:

Shadow

Author:

Morpurgo, Michael author

ISBN:

9780312606596

9780545691017

9781250039965

Edition:

1st U.S. ed.

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

180 pages ; 22 cm

General Note:

Summary:

With the horrors of war bearing down on them, Aman and his mother are barely surviving in an Afghan cave, and staying there any longer will end horribly. The only comfort Aman has is Shadow, the loyal spaniel that shows up from places unknown, it seems, just when Aman needs him most. Aman, his mother, and Shadow finally leave the destroyed cave in hopes of escaping to England, but are held at a checkpoint, and Shadow runs away after being shot at by the police. Aman and his mother escape -- without Shadow. Aman is heart-broken. Just as they are getting settled as free citizens in England, they are imprisoned in a camp with locked doors and a barbed wire fence. Their only hope is Aman's classmate Matt, his grandpa, and the dream of finding his lost dog. After all, you never lose your shadow.

Reading Level:

Ages 10-14.

780 Lexile.

Program Information:

Accelerated Reader MG 4.9 4.

Subject(s):

Dogs -- War use -- Juvenile fiction.

Refugees -- Afghanistan -- Juvenile fiction.

Afghans -- England -- Juvenile fiction.

Mothers and sons -- Juvenile fiction.

Dogs -- War use -- Fiction.

Refugees. -- Afghanistan -- Fiction.

Human-animal relationships -- Fiction.

Afghanistan -- Juvenile fiction.

Afghanistan -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Afghanistan -- Juvenile fiction.

Afghanistan -- Fiction.

Genre:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Silver Falls Library	JF MORPURGO	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Author of War Horse , and bestselling storyteller Michael Morpurgo touched our hearts with this beautiful story of a boy, his lost dog, and the lengths he would go to be reunited. This timely story of battle-scarred Afghanistan delivers a masterful portrait of war, love, and friendship.

With the horrors of war bearing down on them, Aman and his mother are barely surviving in an Afghan cave, and staying there any longer will end horribly. The only comfort Aman has is Shadow, the loyal spaniel that shows up from places unknown, it seems, just when Aman needs him most.

Aman, his mother, and Shadow finally leave the destroyed cave in hopes of escaping to England, but are held at a checkpoint, and Shadow runs away after being shot at by the police. Aman and his mother escape--without Shadow. Aman is heart-broken.

Just as they are getting settled as free citizens in England, they are imprisoned in a camp with locked doors and a barbed wire fence. Their only hope is Aman's classmate Matt, his grandpa, and the dream of finding his lost dog. After all, you never lose your shadow.

Author Notes

British author Michael Morpurgo was born in St. Albans, Hertforshire in 1943. He attended the University of London and studied English and French. He became a primary school teacher in Kent for about ten years. He and his wife Clare started a charity called Farms for City Children. They currently own three farms where over 2000 children a year stay for a week and experience the countryside by taking part in purposeful farmwork.

He has published over 100 books and several screenplays. He won the 1995 Whitbread Children's Book Award for The Wreck of the Zanzibar, the 1996 Nestle Smarties Book Prize for The Butterfly Lion, and the 2000 Children's Book Award for Kensuke's Kingdom. Private Peaceful won the 2005 Red House Children's Book Award and the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award. Five of his books have been made into movies and two have been adapted for television. He was named as the third Children's Laureate in May 2003.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (5)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 4-7-When Matt's friend Aman is threatened with deportation, Matt's grandfather visits Aman in prison, hears how an army sniffer dog helped the boy and his mother escape from Afghanistan, and brings the family's plight to the attention of people who can assure their asylum. Movingly told from multiple perspectives. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publisher's Weekly Review

Morpurgo (War Horse) fuses the devastation of war, anguish of the refugee experience, pain of losing loved ones, healing power of friendship, and redemptive influence of a dog's loyalty in this multifaceted novel, first published in 2010. The author also effectively balances three narrators: Matt, an earnest British 14-year-old; his best friend Aman, who escaped to England from Taliban-occupied Afghanistan six years earlier and is now awaiting deportation; and Matt's compassionate grandfather, who uses his skills as a journalist to fight Aman's deportation. Aman's flashbacks to life under the Taliban (who killed his father, imprisoned and tortured his mother, and blew up his home) and to his arduous flight to England with his mother make up the novel's most harrowing passages. At its emotional core, though, is Aman's relationship with Shadow, a remarkably intuitive spaniel with a surprising past that wanders into his family's cave in Afghanistan and guides Aman during their escape. Despite many sobering plot elements, the novel's subject matter never overwhelms Morpurgo's streamlined storytelling and subtle characterizations. Ages 10-14. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Horn Book Review

As Aman, a young asylum seeker from Bamiyan, Afghanistan, sits in a British detention center waiting to be deported, his best friend Matt is determined to help. Matt tells his retired-journalist grandfather of Amans plight and persuades him to visit Aman in the deportation center. There Aman tells Matts grandfather the story about the talented spaniel (he could sniff out IEDs) he once saved in the caves of Bamiyan. Aman remembers everything: the destruction of the famous stone Buddha sculptures of Bamiyan, the Talibans firm grip, family members deaths and disappearances, landmines, and that amazing dog (called Shadow by Aman and Polly by his British-soldier trainer). Grandfathers dormant journalistic skills are awakened. Not only does he listen to Amans stories but he orchestrates a protest at the deportation center and reunites Aman with the dog and soldier-trainer from Afghanistan. The tale is filled with coincidences, prayerful hopes, and prophetic dreams, all of which come together to lift this story without becoming unduly sentimental. Shadow is the perfect book for classroom teachers looking for a contemporary tale of the old, sad story: wars devastating ramifications for everyone, including children. robin l. smith (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Review

Two 14-year-old boys, one Afghan and one English, find friendship with each other and with two exceptional dogs. Aman and his mother have fled the horrors of life under the Taliban for asylum in England, only to face deportation six years later. His best friend in school and on the soccer fields is Matt, an English boy spending the summer with his grandfather and his grandfather's dog, Dog. Morpurgo tells the story through the voices of Matt, his grandfather and Aman. In the beginning, Matt convinces his grandfather to visit Aman, who is being held in Yarl's Wood, a detention center. His grandfather continues the story, gently persuading Aman to recount what happened in Afghanistan and during the long, treacherous journey to England. The grandfather then organizes a demonstration to protest the deportations, receiving help from sympathetic ministers and an exploding volcano. The titular Shadow is a spaniel, a sniffer dog, trained to alert soldiers to roadside bombs, and she just about steals the story. The dog had bonded with Aman after being separated from her British army unit. Morpurgo has long championed the plight of children and animals in wartime and here ably succeeds in dramatizing the far-reaching repercussions of the decades-old war in Afghanistan. Humanity triumphs over evil and bureaucracy in this heart-rending and heart-affirming story. (postscript, background information on Yarl's Wood and sniffer dogs) (Fiction. 9-14)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

After six years in Manchester, England, Matt's best friend and soccer buddy, Aman, 14, is denied asylum. Now Aman is held in a crowded prison with his broken mother, awaiting deportation and terrified of being sent back to the brutality in Afghanistan. Aman tells his story to Matt's grandfather, including the horror he and his mother left behind: his father and grandfather were murdered, and his mother was tortured by the Taliban before their desperate journey across the border to Iran, Turkey, France, and finally England, where they joined Aman's uncle. Now they are being sent back. Morpurgo humanizes the asylum story through one refugee boy's viewpoint. The heartbreak, brutality, and loss are intensified through the crucial role of a stray dog that comes to Aman in a cave and then never leaves him (hence the name Shadow). He turns out to be a champion army dog that saves the refugees, and the animal story, along with the personal war survival drama, is heartrending.--Rochman, Hazel Copyright 2010 Booklist