Title: Shadow

Author: Michael Morpurgo

Pages: 287

Illustrator: Christian Birmingham

Genre: Fiction

“The dog is not like other dogs. She is more like a friend than a dog, a friendly shadow that does not want to leave us. You never lose your shadow.”

This book is based on the war in Afghanistan, in 2010. Many kids were sent to prison, just because they were from Afghanistan. The soldiers had not mercy. Young, innocent, old, unhappy, frightened, the feelings of the people didn’t matter to the soldiers. Michael Morpurgo saw that, and he couldn’t stand it. Just as he was thinking what he was going to do about it, he read a newspaper article that talked about a black Labrador that disappeared. The Labrador was a sniffer dog, which detected bombs and saved many people’s lives each day. The enemies always wanted to kill the sniffer dogs which detected their bombs, so the people concluded the dog was dead. But one day it came back, well taken care of, but not one knew who took care of it. This gave Michael Morpurgo a great inspiration for the story.

The main character in this story is a boy called Matt, who came for summer holidays in Manchester to live with his Grandfather. His Grandfather had a brown and white Coker Spaniel, called Dog. Matt had a friend from Afghanistan, called Aman, who was sent to Prison where he would be sent to Afghanistan. Judging from Aman’s story, Matt didn’t think that Aman felt like at home in Afghanistan. Aman’s home was in England. Matt couldn’t visit Aman, because he was too young to go to a prison. So he asked his grandfather to go for him.  Matt’s grandfather at first didn’t want to go. He knew Matt’s friend but he felt uncertain. What was he supposed to say? How could he lighten up their spirits? What if he gave them false hope of getting out of the terrible place? But he couldn’t let Matt down. So he went to visit Aman, and it proved out to be worth it. Aman told Matt’s grandfather all about his life. About how he was born in a cave, and how his father was killed. He used to live with his grandmother and mother only, and he never had any friend, that is until a brown and white cocker spaniel, just like Dog, came along. He was skinny and lonely, and Aman had finally found a friend. Aman’s grandmother wanted to send him and his mother to England to his Uncle, where they would be safe, but she couldn’t come along with them. For that reason Aman’s mother didn’t want to go. But when Aman’s grandmother was killed, Aman and his mother made up their mind. It was only then that their suffering really started. Aman and his mother were mistreated a lot, but the cocker spaniel followed them everywhere they went and Aman’s mother learned to love the dog. Because he was like a shadow that followed them everywhere they went, they called him Shadow. However Shadow seemed to leading the way all the time. Shadow had an incredible nose. And they soon found out why. Shadow was a bomb sniffer. She was trained to detect bombs. And that’s how Shadow led Aman and his mother back to her home, where she was thought to be dead. She worked for a soldier, and she was known as Polly. Aman knew that he had to leave Polly with her old owners and travel to England. After arriving to England, and living there for 6 years, Aman and his mother were going to be sent back to Afghanistan. Aman finished his story telling Grandpa he hoped he would be able to help them get out somehow. In Afghanistan it would be the end of their story.

Matt and his Grandfather set up a protest to set Aman and all the other kids in prison free. At first the situation seemed hopeless. But then more and more people joined in the protest, and the police was forced to set Aman and his mother free. It taught Matt never to give up.

I liked this book very much. Since it’s related to the war in Afghanistan I am going to use it as my book project. This is really like Michael Morpurgo to write a story about an animal that had the mind of a human. I give thumbs up and would recommend the book to anyone, who liked animals that is.

 Other Michael Morpurgo books: