Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Boris and the Wrong Shadow
Picture Book
For ages 5 to 7
Tiger Tales, 2012 ISBN: 978-1589254343
One day Boris the Siamese cat wakes up after having a delightful dream. The delicious aftereffects of his dream are soon replaced by a distinct feeling that something is amiss. When Boris gets up he soon sees what is wrong. Instead of having a cat-shaped shadow, he now has a mouse-shaped shadow. Now, some cats would freak out if they saw their shadow acting up, but Boris decides not to let such a “silly thing,” bother him. Instead, he goes outside to enjoy the day.
Unfortunately, the animals in the garden don’t have such a sanguine attitude to cats with mouse shadows, and Boris is laughed at, squeaked at, and ignored. Try as he might, Boris cannot help feeling rather depressed about his situation, and then he sees something that pulls him out of his unhappy state. Boris sees his shadow going by and he sets off in hot pursuit.
In this delightful picture book we meet Boris, a cat whose shadow has been shadow-napped. Or so it would seem. Though Boris is understandably upset about his shadow problem, the experience teaches him something about what it is like to be a small, defenseless creature that other animals don’t take seriously. Maybe it was a good thing that this whole shadow conundrum took place.
