Book lovers keep a secret, sometimes they don’t event admit it to themselves! But today I have decided to let the readers of this blog in on it, because I truly believe it will help young readers blossom and find their way into the voracious book readers club in their adulthood. The secret is this — All the books don’t have to carry a message or be based on STEM or have a General Knowledge element built into it or socially relevant or send signals to the reptilian brain to create a meta conscious — — ( fill the blank with any high sounding sentence that pleases you)! Many a times, we read for being entertained, for a good story or simply for a laugh! These are amazing to keep the habit of reading going and one can easily interweave these books between the serious ones!
Uncle Joe’s Adventures is my pick for a great entertaining series that every child must read. The author Yannets Levi is Israeli and the original books are in Hebrew. When the story teller is from a very unique cultural set up, it starts showing in the way the stories are told.In Most Indian stories it is usually the Grandparents who tell the tales, but in this book series it is Uncle Leo who visits Andy, Graham and Pheobe every Wednesday and tells them personal adventure stories from his travels.
There is nothing real about the stories — There is one in which uncle sleeps for 200 years, or gets stuck in the cloud, or even becomes a piece of cheese. There is one in which he visits a strange land, where the queen has one decree a day and strangers are not allowed to enter the land. Uncle becomes a half woman once when he visits the unfarious tribes. The stories are gripping at the same time funny and real page turners. I highly recommend this book for kids of 8+ years . In short they are a new and refreshing version of the Enid Blytons that many of us may have grown up with. There are 5 in the series, so if the kid is hooked to one ( highly likely too, as these happen to have sold more than 500,000 copies in Israel alone) , the other 4 are easy picks !
The Illustrations are by Yaniv Shimony and are very different from the Indian, European or American books that are usually in our collection. the palette contains more lighter colours, but the illustrations themselves are quirky and funny and the children will love it
Age Band — broad band :8 + years
Publisher : Red Turtle, a Rupa Publisher Imprint
Author : Yannets Levi
Illustrator: Yaniv Shimony
About the Reviewer:
Roomana Basha: Mother to a book lover | Founder and CEO ekdali.com | Loves books — Currently reading How to Teach Economics to my Daughter| Fitness Freak | History Buff
Books in the series:
Uncle Leo’s Adventures in the Siberian Jungle
Uncle Leo’s Adventures in the Romanian Steppes
Uncle Leo’s Adventures in the Sahara Forests
