Kekula

by Jahcolyn Russell Neiman

{ 2011 | AuthorHouse | 32 pgs }

Kekula is the story of a girl who’s born with the mark of a zebra. It has been foretold that she will be taken away from her village, and can only be returned by another who has the zebra mark.

Unfortunately, the book falls awkwardly between a picture book and a very short chapter book. The full-page illustrations add nicely to the story, but the accompanying text sometimes takes up 3 solid pages top-to-bottom – much too dense for a kid who would really be interested in the large pictures. What’s more, the dialogue isn’t broken up into paragraphs, making the conversations hard to follow. It’s not very aesthetically pleasing, either. And I did find several typos.

That being said, I did enjoy Kekula. The story was interesting, even if parts were a little cliche. Kids don’t mind, right? While I definitely wouldn’t buy a copy, it’s not a waste of time to read it if you should see it somewhere.

One last note – I can only find two other reviews of this book. Read them here and here (although, like most books given to bloggers to review, most of what you’ll see is a cover blurb followed by “It was a fun book to read.”).

Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book from the publisher, but there was no other compensation and the opinions contained here are my own.

Buy Kekula on Amazon