Review of “The Orphan Boy” written by Tololwa M. Mollel

          “The Orphan Boy” written by Tololwa M. Mollel was one of the books we discussed in class. The genre of “The orphan boy” is fantasy but it also feels like a folktale. In “The Orphan Boy”, the antagonist is the protagonist himself. The protagonist is the old man. An orphan boy came to him and delighted his life. Soon the old man became curious to know the secrets of the orphan boy. He was struggling because he did not want to break the trust between him and the orphan boy. In this conflict, the old man’s desire won. He followed the boy and found out the orphan boy was the star. As the result of this conflict, the orphan boy returned to his star and the old man remained in his regents. He learned that he should not break his promise and he should not let his desire controls his decisions.

          The media of the illustrations looked like oil paints or acrylic to me. I think this choice of media was because the illustrator wanted to establish the historical feeling of this particular story. The illustrations interpret the text very well. The illustrations are detailed and decorated the text well, it expand some feelings that the text did not mention such as the struggling between the old man and his desire and the sacrosanctity of the orphan boy. The colours of these illustrations also guide the readers through the story. The illustrations were bright and warm in the beginning then they turned to dark and cold in the climax when old man struggling with his desire, and then the colours became bright again in the ending. Colour always helps readers, especially young readers to understand the progress of a story.