Me and My Shadow

Me and My Shadow teaches children about good behavior through the relationship of a young boy and his shadow.

A young boy named Brody and his shadow do everything together. They swing on trees, pretend to be pirates and play hide and seek. They greet each in the morning and say good night when it is time for bed.

One day, Brody does not behave properly. He is invited to sit with the “cool” kids at lunch but does not take his good friend along with him. During a test Brody cheats on a test by looking at another student’s answers. He is mean to his best friend and cheats in a basketball game too. At home, Brody is not kind to sister or mother.

Later, when Brody climbs and swings on his shadow’s favorite oak tree, he notices his shadow is not there. Back home, Brody sees his shadow is on the wall, but it does not move.

Brody goes outside to play shadow tag with friends, but the other children notice he does not have a shadow and do not play with him. As he walks away, Brody notices everyone has a shadow except him.

Brody changes his behavior – he is kind to his friends, he does not cheat on his tests, and he does his chores. His shadow returns!

The relationship between the boy and his shadow is a very creative way to convey an important lesson about proper behavior. The shadow left the boy when he was misbehaving and came back when he was kind and honest. I liked how some illustrations were behind a “cover” like a shadow and then revealed on the following page. However, I did feel the story did not flow well. It started off well but some of the transitions to not flow well. Towards the end, Brody suddenly changes his behavior with no reason provided. I thought the illustrations were okay. The book has potential to be a five-star read.