Book Review of A Magical Adventure in Chewore by Chellie Conlon

Book Title: A Magical Adventure in Chewore
Genre: Children's Adventure

Pages: 22

Author: Chellie Conlon

Date Published: 2 May 2016 (E-book)

Synopsis:

A magical adventure in Chewore is set on the banks of the Zambezi River, about a little girl named Emily, who meets all kinds of wild animals.
Our Wildlife is our future.

Review:

A Magical Adventure in Chewore by Chellie Conlon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author in return for an honest review.

Emily is a little girl who has moved with her parents to Chewore, a small area on the banks of the Zambezi river in Zimbabwe. In this tale she gets to meet the various wild animals that live nearby and make friends with them.

My sister actually brought this book to my attention. Being an ex-Zimbabwean, I do miss being able to see a variety of animals roaming free in their natural habitat. I wanted to share Emily's story with the reluctant readers I mentor at a local school here in the UK. Being brought up with a variety of wild life myself, it is difficult to explain to someone who hasn't had that experience what it is like. However, looking at the world through Emily's eyes, young children can glimpse something special. Emily treats all animals with respect and friendliness. She meets Freddie the frog, who loves to lie in the mud of the strawberry plants, as well as a cheeky monkey called Stumpy and a giggling hyena called Happiness. There are other animals and birds that Emily meets along the way too.

This is a charming fictional tale that made me smile. Most of the animals Emily supposedly meets are beautifully showcased in the photographs taken by the author and gives the story a more realistic feel. As this is a fictional story and not real life, I feel that this book doesn't educate as much as entertain. Nevertheless, it introduces children to wild animals that they wouldn't ever meet unless they went with their parents on Safari in Africa or to a zoo.
This is definitely a magical adventure in Chewore, and I am looking forward to sharing it with the children I mentor.

Chellie Conlon has written a wonderful story. She doesn't use any large words that could confuse a young reader. She has a wonderful way of bringing the animals to life and I look forward to reading more of Emily's adventures in the future. I would like to thank her for sending me this book in print, as it is beautiful to look at and hold. I also think that it's fantastic that a percentage of the book sales are going towards the preservation of these animals.

I highly recommend this book to young children aged 3 and above.

Going slightly off topic: Zoo's are not ideal places for any animal, in my opinion, and they do not have the same impact of watching a lion chase a zebra for food, or an elephant knocking down an amarula tree in an effort to get at it's fruit, or when visiting a nature reserve in a car (as I did) and being lead by a matriarch elephant from the watering hole where the babies and their mothers were bathing so as to not separate them from each other. Wild animals need to be treated with respect, because they can be unpredictable. Lives (both human and animal) are lost because of plain stupidity and a lack of common sense by us humans. Children and adults need to be better educated; you can't walk up to a lion (in the wild or in a zoo) and stroke it (for example) and not have it take a bite out of you. They are not tame, even if they've been born in a zoo and exposed to humans for years. - Lynn Worton

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