Book Nook - Paka Mdogo

 H.S. Toshack’s ‘Paka Mdogo’ series takes young (and not-so-young) readers on thrilling escapades alongside Sheena, a cunning and cheeky little family cat with a knack for survival. In following her ventures into the wild African savannah, H.S. Toshack weaves tales about friendship, bravery, and the importance of understanding different ways of living. Each story is filled with gripping episodes, humorous comments (mainly from Sheena) and subtle life lessons that will resonate with children and adults alike: all four encourage readers to see in a new light, through what happens to the animals, some of the thing staking place in our lives as humans.

 

 

Young readers are invited to enter once more the enchanting world of the Paka Mdogo series as the first three books are released in second editions, alongside a new and equally captivating adventure set in Thailand.

These delightful children’s books follow Sheena, a clever and resourceful little cat with a penchant for exploration, as she navigates the African wilds. H.S. Toshack, in his richly woven narratives and with his deep understanding of the animal kingdom, has crafted stories that are not only enthralling but also thought-provoking.

In the tangled bush of Baragandiri National Park and on its sun-baked plains, Sheena makes friends and encounters foes, learning as she goes and in return passing on invaluable insights into life, nature, and the need for cooperation in the interests of survival, making the books doubly rewarding– as wholly engaging and also inspiring reads.

The dramatic illustrations and vivid prose have made the series a firm favourite, and the release of the fourth book in the series, The Smile of the Tiger, is sure to secure Sheena’s tales as priceless additions to eager readers’ bookshelves across the world (they have global implications in their child-friendly treatment of personal, social and conservation issues). 

 

‘Paka Mdogo’ Synopsis:

A clever and cheeky little black-and white cat-who sneaks off on an African safari with the Allen family... Her journey into the heart of Baragandiri in search of the Allens, after she has become separated from them... Terrifying encounters (often involving teeth) with the wild animals there... Nyanya, an old but ferocious lioness, who plans to attack Thomas and Amy, the Allen children, while they are asleep in their tent...

 

Only Sheena can save the children. But first she must find them.

 

‘The Gradual Elephant’ Synopsis:

Mpole is a 12-year-old African elephant who has been forced to leave The Herd. He must now prove himself by passing The Seven Tests (Mitihani Saba) so that he can become Accepted as a young male. Mpole's problem, however, is that he does things gradually...and that includes both growing up and thinking. How can he possibly succeed?

 

With the help of Sheena, perhaps – the quick-thinking little family pet who has sneaked back to Baragandiri National Park with the Allen family on their second safari there.

 

But a test much bigger than Mitihani Saba awaits them.

 

‘The Meerkat Wars’ Synopsis:

It's all very well helping a young meerkat who's been poisoned by a scorpion. But when you've made friends with the whole Duwara tribe of meerkats, and you discover that they're at war with the Utongo, you may find yourself involved in that too, even if you're only a little black-and-white cat.

And when you realise that the two tribes are fighting because each one believes it lives under The One True Sun, then you may have to undertake a very dangerous journey to help them see things differently.

You may have to go through The Gorge.

 

 

‘The Smile of the Tiger’ Synopsis:

Sheena finds herself trapped, alone and without food and water, high up in an apartment block in Thailand, The Land of Smiles, when floods from the North swamp the city. The Allens have left the country without her, thinking she was safe. She must escape…

 

…but she escapes into a very much changed Thailand, a World of Water.

 

She learns that smiles, like water, can be of very different kinds; and she has to make some extraordinary friends (including Khemkhaeng, a splendid tiger, and Chang, an unhappy young elephant – both of whom need help) and join them in a fellowship of travellers on a dangerous journey to The Tenasserim Hills in the hope of finding what they are all looking for.

 

Freedom.

 

“In creating the series, I wanted to capture the essence of Africa’s (and now Thailand’s) heart and spirit as seen through the eyes and ears of Sheena, a character as curious as any child,” says Toshack.

“Each story is an expedition into the richness of the natural world, designed to teach as much as it entertains. My hope is to inspire children to look beyond their immediate surroundings and become aware of the diversity and beauty of other places and other lives. These stories are more than just children’s tales, they are a bridge to understanding and appreciating the complex interrelations within our environment, and they can be a very effective teaching tool for educators and parents.”

About the Author:

 

H.S. Toshack has lived and worked as an English teacher and educational consultant in the UK, the Caribbean, East Africa, Thailand and the Middle East.

 

His first three Paka Mdogo animal adventure stories are set in Africa, but they are coloured by his experience of people, animals and lives lived in all of those other places; and in his fourth book, ‘The Smile of the Tiger’, he takes his cat heroine Sheena to one of them – Thailand.

 

'Or rather,' he says, 'I've let her take me. She led me through the first three books, after all. It was as if she was telling her stories through me, and I was listening to them for the first time.’

 

His favourite book in the series?

 

“Probably the first one, 'Paka Mdogo', since it took me so fully back to Africa in my imagination; but I have to say that The Meerkat Wars is the most important of the three, since it explores in very dramatic fashion the issue of conflict, and offers young readers reassurance in our troubled times that divisiveness can be resisted and harmony achieved through listening, talking and honest thinking.”

 

Second editions of the African books and a first edition of The Smile of the Tiger are now available on Amazon, in both print and Kindle format.

 

HST (as he likes to be known) is also the principal author of The WordSmith Guides, and The WordSmith Prompts, designed to help senior secondary students prepare for literature exams across a range of assessment systems. The Guides include critical commentaries on Shakespeare’s major tragedies, and two handbooks providing extensive courses in the rhetorical analysis of both literary and non-literary writing.

 

Some of his travelling is reflected in several collections of poetry (illustrated by photographs “of varying quality”– his admission!), the first four of which are recently published on Amazon. They will be accompanied in due course by Writing Travel Poetry, which encourages travellers to record their experiences not just in photographs but in verse (mainly of the non-versified kind).

 

He has produced, with Sonia Orwell’s permission, a dramatised version of Animal Farm, for use in schools. It has been successfully performed, but is yet to be published. (“I take no great credit for that work – it was really just a rewarding ‘cut and paste’ process from a powerful story with increasing importance in today’s troubled times.”)

 

“Which genre brings you most satisfaction as a writer?” we asked this versatile author.

 

“The one that allows me to help open young and not so young minds to new ways of thinking – about life as well as literature. But I guess that’s all four.”