The cat that's afraid of his own shadow (Colin and the Wrong Shadow - Leigh Hodgkinson)

Member Name: kingfisher111

Product:	Colin and the Wrong Shadow - Leigh Hodgkinson
Date:	22/12/08 (366 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: a fun book for children

Disadvantages: none!

You can tell just by looking at the cover that Colin and the Wrong Shadow is going to be a fun book that will have a great appeal to most young children. It looks bright and exciting and a touch mischievous as well when you spot a cheeky looking cat with the shadow of a tiny mouse. Open up the book and the reader is met with bright bold illustrations and a wealth of text skipping and jumping over every page. This book really is a visual delight and my two young daughters love the detail and attraction of every page.


It's a lovely daft story too. Colin the cat wakes up one day to discover that his shadow is missing and he seems to have one belonging to a very small mouse in it's place. He's not going to let that ruin his day though but it soon does when the other cats snigger and squeak at him and even the birds ignore him. He starts to feel quite gloomy and things get a lot worse when he finally spots his own shadow attached to Vernon the mouse. Vernon explains that while Colin was snoozing his shadow became bored and fidgety and wandered off. When Vernon found it, it made him feel big and important so he kept it. However Vernon soon discovers that having a big shadow can be quite tricky especially when he wants to go through his small mouse holes. Eventually the shadows are swapped back and Vernon is very happy as he now gets to play with both Colin and his shadow!


This story is told with a great deal of warmth and humour and both my daughters loved it. The idea of swapping shadows was very appealing and they enjoyed laughing at Colin's attempts to get it back. They did feel quite sad though when Colin was being laughed at and each declared that they would be his friend. Having a happy ending was very important to them and they both felt that it was only right that Colin got his shadow back in the end.


The way the words are set out on the page are very different and exciting. It's quite hard to explain as many varied devices have been used to make sure the words stand out on the page. I would say that every font imaginable has been used as well as being written in varying size from teeny weeny to huge. Some of the words are emboldened or in capitals or in bright colours. Some form the shape of the thing that they say and many of them twirl, swirl, skip or dance across the page. Along with the amazing multi-coloured pictures, this ensures that every page is very exciting to look at.


It's a lovely book to read aloud as there is some wonderful language used. A lovely example of this is on the page where Colin has just spotted his own shadow:


Colin decides to follow it.

He slinks snoopily under there...

He tippy-tappy toes over there...

Being ever so shushy and quiet as a ...


Overall this book is so much fun and it has not taken long for it to become a firm favourite with my girls. They have decided that they love Colin and are very pleased that the author Leigh Hodgkinson has written at least one other book about him so I'm sure we will be on the look out for more stories about Colin!

This review has previously appeared under my name at www.thebookbag.co.uk

Summary: A great story to share with small children!