Children - Fiction & Literature, Children - Fairy Tales, Myths & Fables

Orphan Boy

Name: Orphan Boy
Author: Tololwa M. Mollel
ISBN: 9780395720790

by Tololwa M. Mollel, Paul Morin

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Overview

Seaching the sky for a familiar star, an old man encounters a mysterious boy, Kileken. As he comes to love the boy as a son, he agrees to let him keep the one thing he owns: a secret.

Though delighted that an orphan boy has come into his life, an old man becomes insatiably curious about the boy's mysterious powers.

Synopsis

Seaching the sky for a familiar star, an old man encounters a mysterious boy, Kileken. As he comes to love the boy as a son, he agrees to let him keep the one thing he owns: a secret.

Publishers Weekly

PW praised the ``richly textured paintings'' and ``compelling'' plot of this magical fable set in Africa. Ages 5-8. (Feb.)

About the Author, Tololwa M. Mollel

Tololwa M. Mollel, an Arusha Maasai from Tanzania, grew up on his grandfather's coffee farm, an hour's drive from Mount Kilimanjaro. After receiving his B.A. in Literature and Theatre at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Mr. Mollel went to Canada in 1966 to complete his master's degree at the University of Alberta. In the late 1970s he returned to Tanzania where he was Senior Lecturer and Head of the Theatre Department at the University of Dar es Salaam. At that time he was also co-director of a children's theatre and arts group. Mr. Mollel has written many books for Clarion. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota..

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

PW praised the ``richly textured paintings'' and ``compelling'' plot of this magical fable set in Africa. Ages 5-8. (Feb.)

School Library Journal

Gr 2-4-- In this story, as in tales of the ``Magic Tree,'' the ``Crane Wife,'' or the ``Selkie,'' a magic creature takes human shape and showers good fortune on a man until the stranger's secret being is revealed and the alien departs. In this legend from the Maasai, a star takes the shape of a young orphan boy, bringing comfort, companionship, and bounty to an impoverished herdsman. The old man dotes on his mysterious ``son'' but, overcome by curiosity and urged on by an unnamed shadow figure, he discovers how the boy turns the harsh, dry land into green pasture. His secret powers discovered, the boy returns to the sky, to appear again as the planet Venus, the morning star. This ancient myth, told to Mollel by his grandfather, is accompanied by magnificent oil paintings of Africa in which the colorfully clad old tribesman and the lush green grassland contrast with pictures of arid, sun-drenched plains, baked dry by heat and drought. The design is beautiful, with a narrow border of beadwork providing a continuous link through the pages, and with dark endpapers featuring a shadowy block print providing a frame for the whole tale. Usable with other myths or legends, as a story of youth and age, as a window into an African culture, or for the sheer beauty of the illustrations, this is a book that will widen the world of its readers. --Shirley Wilton, Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ